A false PC Ventress is making the roads of North Riding unsafe, abusing traffic offenders and behaving like a real Nazi. The real PC Ventress and his colleagues decide the only way to stop him is to set a trap for him. Mrs. Challis is convinced that her neighbour opposite, Mr. Arlott, is keeping his pregnant daughter Julie against her will. The girl is freed and gives premature birth to a little girl with breathing problems. Maggie has a hard time coping with her husband's death, but the little girl's struggle to live and recovery help her deal with the situation. Oscar Blaketon is not happy to see that George Seago is back in Aidensfield and far less happy, although not surprised, to learn that Seago has business with Claude Greengrass. Seago has a ferret he wants to race, but he knows that the organizer Boy Bryden will never let him enter and asks Greengrass to do it for him.

On his way home from the Aidensfield Arms one night Col. Clifford hits a boy on a bicycle. At his trial he gets a fine and is required to take a driving test. During the test it is discovered that he is night blind and he is only allowed to drive at daytime. Gina's old friend Terry Noble has gone AWOL after a fight with another soldier. She hides him although sergeant Craddock has asked his constables to be on the lookout for him. It turns into a murder hunt when the soldier he attacked dies, and Noble takes Col. Clifford hostage until he can get away during the night. Oscar Blaketon inherits a lot of money and has a business proposition for Lord Ashfordly, which Greengrass probably will not be too happy about. And speaking of Greengrass he is planning a French gourmet evening at the Aidensfield Arms.

There has been a series of break-ins at the homes of recently deceased persons and the clues lead to Cyril Fuller an old friend of Claude Greengrass. Greengrass is convinced that his friend is innocent and is persuaded to do something he would have thought he would never do - help the police! Blaketon has bought the Aidensfield Arms from Lord Ashfordly, and soon he drives both Gina and Aunt Mary crazy with all his demands. Maggie Bolton is enjoying motherhood so much she decides to quit her nursing job. But a serious outbreak of the flu may make her reconsider. Blaketon and Greengrass are both sure they will not catch the illness because they have ways to avoid it. Yeah and pigs might...

A group of young offenders has got permission to do some labouring work on PC Bradley's patch with only one guard, Blenkiron. Two of the boys, Varley and Sloper, wander off during a lunch break and break into a car. Varley returns as nothing has happened, while Sloper continues and befriends the famous writer Honor Gale, who has rented a cottage in Aidensfield to start a new book. Mrs. Gale also has a very soft spot for PC Bradley and uses every opportunity to call him. The election for the Ashfordly rural district council is getting nearer, and Claude Greengrass is helping Tom Drabble with his campaign with the reluctant aide of Bernie Scripps because he needs a planning permission for his latest scheme. Another reason is that Drabble's rival candidate is Oscar Blaketon.

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.

An old man is attacked in what appears to be an open-and-shut case of burglary.

Christmas time is near. Somebody has been decimating Lord Ashfordly's population of deer, and for once Greengrass is not a suspect. As a matter of fact he agrees to help the police by posing as a potential buyer to smoke the poachers out. He is also occupied by his latest idea, a driving school - using Bernie Scripps's hearse. Jackie is handling a divorce case for Julia Kendall and she wants the police to enforce a restraining order against her husband Frank. Her daughter Katie misses her father and still visits him almost every day hoping her parents will get back together again. Maggie is in charge of the annual Christmas concert and she wants Katie Kendall to sing at the concert. A good idea because the young girl has the voice of an angel.

Dr. Ian Peters is the new doctor in Aidensfield. His presence will soon be needed when a hit-and-run driver crashes into the car of Jackie's friend Sue. Both she and Jackie get only minor injuries. Or so it seems because it turns out that Sue has a severe, internal head injury when she collapses into a coma. David is a witness to the accident, and when he and Greengrass are picking up some old bicycles, which the old scoundrel has "borrowed" from Lord Ashfordly to hire out to the participants of a fun bike race, they find the hit-and-run car burning. Lord Ashfordly identifies the car as his old Bentley, and his nephew Charles testifies that he saw the chauffeur's son Eric sitting in the car shortly before the accident. Andy is trying to get back into Gina's good books, and he has some serious doubts about the new doctor's qualifications. But he might just be jealous because Gina likes Dr. Peters.

Roy Brooks receive a 6-month sentence for horse theft, but the sentence is suspended because he has to keep his family together after his wife's recent death. But it is an uphill struggle because he has a serious drinking problem. The following night the race horse Rio Boy is stolen from Lord Ashfordly's stables and Brooks gets under suspicion because his lorry matches the description of the one used by the thieves. Bernie Scripps accidentally tells Greengrass that he has psychic powers. When the old scoundrel has stopped laughing he gets the idea that they might as well cash in on it. Understandably Scripps does not agree. Phil Bellamy is babysitting Maggie Bolton's son Sam, but when he wakes up from a little nap to feed the baby Sam has gone missing.

A motorist crashes at Valley Edge Road and is knocked unconscious. PC Bradley collects his property for safe keeping, but when the motorist Danny Reese is released from hospital a suitcase containing £18,000 is missing. Henry Todd refuses to pay his taxes until the Council meets his demands not to pull down the old pavilion of his old cricket team the original Aidensfield First Eleven. The members of the team all volunteered for military duty during the First World War and all died in the battle of the Somme except Mr. Todd. Just when the bailiffs are about to force entry to his house Todd's taxes are paid by Bernie Scripps, who has received the money anonymously by mail. It seems a modern day Robin Hood is at large when other villagers share the same fate. Meanwhile Oscar Blaketon overhears a suspicious conversation between Reese and his fiancée Jenny Preston.

Sylvia Smith takes care of her ill mother Freda, and too much so if you ask her fiancée Jack Hall. Every time he wants to take her out she declines because of her mother's illness. One night on of Sylvia's brother Tony's fish-and-chips shops is burned down and his wife Gladys is not surprised to learn that it was arson. She is convinced that Jack is the arsonist and the relationship between them does not improve when old Freda Smith dies and leaves everything to Sylvia. Oscar Blaketon gets a visit from his old friend Ursula Donne. She is also an old friend of Lord Ashfordly's and she sticks to him like glue when she meets him again joining him for dinners and to the horse races. She even invites him to join her consortium, which owns hotels all over England. Nurse Bolton gets a job at a hospital and leaves Aidensfield.