DJ Tiny Weedon is assaulted after playing at a dance at the village hall in Aidensfield. Weedon claims nothing was taken, but word has it that drugs were involved. And according to young Karen Fletcher, who witnessed the assault, sergeant Blaketon's son Graham was one of the assailants. Greengrass delivers a letter to "Sweaty" Betty Such from her late husband Arthur. A few days later PC Rowan is knocked down with a spade at the church yard and the very next morning somebody has been trying to desecrate old Arthur's grave.

Billy Trotter returns for his mother's funeral, but is too late. Also too late is Stella Redford, who needs Mrs. Trotter's help to trace a little girl she gave up for adoption twenty years ago. Instead Maggie Bolton advises her to consult Jackie Bradley. The matter gets more complicated when her purse with her only picture of the child is stolen from her hotel room - one of many burglaries in hotel rooms in the area. Sergeant Craddock wants Jackie's help in a personal matter. His wife wants a divorce. Greengrass and Trevor Pargoe are staging a lurcher competition and lay out red herrings to throw off the police and Oscar Blaketon. The Inland Revenue is breathing down Greengrass' back again. They want to re-evaluate his cottage for taxation reasons. He does not!