The Mazzetti family is running a fish-and-chips restaurant and a number of chip vans all over North Riding, but when the head of the family, Franco Mazzetti, dies his eldest son Paolo wants to sell off the chip vans and serve pizzas in the restaurant instead. The night after the funeral one of the vans is vandalized and the Mazzettis blame one of their competitors Big Eddy. Greengrass has bought one of the surviving chip vans to get into the catering business himself and gets caught right in the middle of it. Emily Poole is the victim of a series of break-ins and every time PC Ventress is out there like a shot to investigate. Mostly because she serves him tea and cookies every time and Mrs. Ventress has put him on a diet.

. Ralph Spurling has been burgled and wants Oscar Blaketon to find out which employee at the hotel he was staying at is involved in the burglary. PC Wetherby helped Lesley Ashton in a case back in Northallerton and now she is obsessed with him and turns up in Ashfordly with a suitcase. When he turns her down she accuses him of running her down with his car. Bernie Scripps goes to see Iris Grocott to collect his fee for her husbands funeral and she surprises him by inviting him to dinner and does not take no for an answer. They check in at the same hotel which Blaketon is investigating with the help of Alf Ventress. And staying in the romance department things are really heating up between Nurse Cassidy and Doctor Oakley.