Two armed robbers hold up a train just outside Aidensfield while a third robber threatens Quinn, the man at the signal box, into stopping the train so that his accomplices can make off with £200,000. Quinn tries to stop his attacker causing both him and the robber to be injured by a gun shot. A mysterious woman turns up at the Aidensfield Arms and asks for Claude Greengrass and David is very surprised to learn that she is his sister Bella, whom he has not seen for 22 years which is still much too soon for him. Mike and Jackie have set the date for their wedding. They want to keep it a secret, but soon the news is out all over Aidensfield. Yet Mike nearly does not make it in time because he stumbles over the injured train robber.

The Randalls were married in Aidensfield and they want their daughter to be wed at the same church. But Rev. Truscott is in dire need of bell ringers and asks Dr. Alway to help him out. The doctor enlists David and the Scripps's as his helpers, but bell ringing takes time to learn and not everybody in the village are that keen on the ringing of bells in and out of season. Lord Ashfordly is not satisfied with the income from his quarry. Therefore he hires Oscar Blaketon to keep an eye on the manager Mr. Briggs. Following an anonymous call the police discover that explosives are missing from the quarry. They also have to deal with the security in connection with the defence minister's visit to Fylingdales radar station. Oscar Blaketon has problems of his own. He has returned from a holiday in Spain with an accusation of violence hanging over his head.

Eva Parker wants her dearly departed husband to be buried in the family grave in Aidensfield. But her brother-in-law Eli Parker will not allow his late brother to be buried in the family grave because of an old dispute. Jethro Woods was believed to have caused the death of Charlie Walker following a robbery against Walker's factory, but his guilt was never proven. Now he turns up in Aidensfield to Oscar Blaketon's great dissatisfaction. Walker's son Harry is not too happy about it either, and when Woods is the victim of vandalism and later gets killed in a hit-and-run accident Harry Walker is the most likely suspect. But Woods also claimed that he was framed and that he knew who really robbed the Walker factory, and he may have been killed to ensure his silence.

The Provincial Bank in Ashfordly gets robbed by a young woman and her boyfriend. When the pair strikes again against a grocer's shop a customer resists them and the woman gets shot in the leg. Her boyfriend kidnaps Dr. Trent and forces her to treat the wound. The doctor believes she has seen the woman, called Lucy, before. Bernie is away and has left a thorough list of to-dos for David. Aunt Peggy thinks that Bernie should give him more responsibility. She even takes it upon herself to organize a funeral.