PC Rowan is on loan to the CID to investigate local gangster Frank Armstrong. But Rowan has other things on his mind as well. Katie is getting christened and he gets a visit from Jill Criddle, an old friend and colleague from the Met. By request of the CID she teams up with Rowan as his 'floozie'. They soon discover that Armstrong is spreading out his activities to include race horses. Armstrong is not the only one interested in race horses. Greengrass and his friend Billy Black, also known as The Horse Doctor, want to improve the chances of a certain horse in a race. Incidentally Armstrong is also very eager to talk to Black and has sent to goons to get hold of him. Unfortunately Black knows that Nick and Jill are cops!

David is with Aunt Peggy on one of her 'nightly expeditions' when he sees a shooting star. Soon thereafter there's a big explosion and rumours of a meteorite crashing down in the forest. The police finds traces of a more earthly origin though. Nurse Cassidy finds a man lying semi-unconsciously with burns and blast injuries at the roadside and takes him to hospital. Sergeant Miller and DS Dawson are convinced that this is no coincidence and PC Mason goes undercover to investigate Larry Fowler, who is said to sell dynamite to armed robbery teams from the quarry where he is the manager. Aunt Peggy on the other hand doesn't mind having a rock from outer space falling practically into her - or maybe rather Lord Ashfordly's - back yard. Not after hearing that space rocks are quite valuable. And she does nothing to prevent David from thinking aliens have landed. On the contrary.