Strange things are happening at Kirlby Moor. A car driver runs down a sheep when he tries to avoid a drunken hiker, Mr. Holroyd goes missing on a fishing trip to the moor and on the bus driving across the moor the conductress Hannah Davis is subjected to indecent exposure by a drunken passenger they had just picked up on the moor. But that is not the only problem for PC Rowan. Sergeant Blaketon keeps him, PC Bellamy and PC Ventress on their toes due to an upcoming inspection at the Ashfordly police station.

Sergeant Blaketon is out on patrol when he is overtaken by a long-haired bully wearing a leather jacket on a motorcycle. He catches up with him while he is parked at a petrol station, and when he is asked for his name the "bully" introduces himself as Mike Bradley, the new police constable. After getting a much needed haircut PC Bradley soon has his baptism of fire when two armed criminals take Greengrass and Gina hostage so that they can hide in their catering truck and get into a pipeline compound to empty the safe. And they make it very clear that they are not afraid to use their firearms. Blaketon has a hard time facing retirement and asks for more tests, but he has to wait another week for the results of these tests. His heart will give him an answer much sooner than that.

Greengrass buys a used police car at an auction, where Bernie Scripps recognizes the former racing driver Russell Palmer, who now works for his cousin Keith Hibbert. Hibbert and Palmer are arrested after a brawl at the Aidensfield Arms and have to spend the night in prison at the police station under the watchful eyes of PC Bradley, who has the night watch. During the night Palmer complains of head aches and early next morning he is found dead in his cell. Hibbert accuses PC Bradley of beating Palmer up and thus causing his death. Acting sergeant Rowan has no other option than to launch a full investigation and suspend Bradley. Meanwhile Greengrass has converted his police car into a taxi cab and happens to overhear a little too much on his radio.

Somebody has been snatching Gina's empty bottles and PC Bradley has offered to stake out the pub. Meanwhile his past is catching up with him due to the death in custody case. His former girlfriend Penny turns up in Aidensfield with her baby son Tommy claiming that Bradley is the father. But also the gangsters Linden and Martin, who Bradley helped put away when he was with the Met, are eager to get hold of him when their sentences are reversed. Greengrass is "liberating" some fish from Lord Ashfordly when he befriends the tramp Tessa, who is doing a little liberating herself.

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.

Who would have thought that Alf Ventress was a commando during the war? Well he was, and his old war buddies come to Aidensfield to celebrate their reunion. Being "a friend of Lord Ashfordly's" Greengrass arranges a bit of fishing and hunting for them on his lordship's grounds. Suddenly there is a shot and the cashier of their widows and orphans fund Matty Lowell is found dead at the forest floor. Lovell had a clash with Charlie Penwarden, the son of their late commanding officer, and Oscar Blaketon finds a half-burned letter from Lovell to Penwarden in which he confesses to fraud. A couple of hours before his death Lovell was seen with muck raking journalist Ralph Drake. Molly Rysinski is dying and she prefers to die at home. But her son Graham disagrees and thinks she should be at the hospital instead. Flinton Blain is complaining that the Aidensfield Arms is too noisy and goes a long way to prove it.

Bill Dyer asks PC Bradley to take a closer look at Giles Sutton whom he suspects of rigging the sheep market. Sutton senses what is going to happen and offers Jackie his legal account. He even pays for their meal one night he "spots" Mike and Jackie having dinner at a restaurant. Mike gets angry when he finds out, but Jackie insists Sutton only did it as a gesture to her totally failing to recognize the consequences it may have on her husband. Sutton even leaves a large amount of money in Mike's jacket, and although Mike returns the money he is suspended for taking bribes. But even worse is to come in Mike's and Jackie's private life. Dilys Powell persuades Vernon to go into business with her marketing the spring water from her farm on bottles. Vernon thinks it is an excellent idea and invites Lord Ashfordly as a prospective investor.

Sergeant Craddock has been promoted and a new sergeant is expected at Ashfordly police station. His name is Dennis Merton and he is an ex-CID. From their patrol car PC Ventress and PPC Nicholson spot the disqualified driver Paul Rogers going in the opposite direction in his car after seeing his girlfriend Sandra, but Rogers denies having been driving when they confront him. His father Ken Rogers has had CID chasing his tail for years, and by going after Paul the Ashfordly police land themselves in the middle of a major CID investigation. David is out of form from sitting in the taxi and wait for customers. Vernon Scripps supervises David's training and spots the talented boxer Jeremy Purves. Scripps has high hopes for his new protégé, but despite his talents Purves lacks the deciding punch.

Sergeant Merton is dating Vivienne Keen, but the morning after a date she accuses him of stealing her purse. Merton of course denies the allegation and is suspended pending investigation, but things do not look to good for him when the purse is found in his apartment. Furthermore a similar allegation was made against him ten years earlier, but the case was dropped. PC Bradley still thinks his superior is innocent and begins his own, private investigation at the risk of being suspended himself. Bernie Scripps is acting strangely. He has seen Dr. Summerbee a lot recently and Vernon is afraid he suffers from a serious depression.

Oscar Blaketon gets a major shock when he sees a man passing in a car. Blaketon is absolutely sure the man is Harry Bradshaw, who was one of the biggest villains in North Riding when Blaketon became sergeant at Ashfordly police station. The only trouble is that Bradshaw is dead and his death has been confirmed by two trusted police officers one of which is PC Ventress. PC Bradley is investigating a break-in at a renting cottage, but the only thing missing is the tenant John Baker. His body is later found in a quarry. He was murdered and it turns out he was an old accomplice of Bradshaw's. At the Woodside estates Geoff Atkins and his neighbour Syd Carter accuse each other of digging in each other's gardens at night. After his latest venture has gone badly wrong Vernon Scripps tries something completely new to him. He gets a regular job at a department store in Ashfordly. When the department store is closed down the old entrepreneur in him wakes up again.

DC Bradley is tipped off by his informant Harry that Vic Hawking and Len Dowd have bribed the driver of a bullion van to make an unscheduled stop so that they can rob it of its shipment of gold. The police lay in wait for the robbers, but something goes wrong when the van stops at a different place than it was supposed to. Gina is not the only pretty face at the Aidensfield Arms anymore. Her niece Susie got in with a bad crowd and her mother wants her to get away for a while and stay with her aunt at the pub. But Susie is not that keen on getting away from anything and especially not from her boyfriend Jamie, who follows her to Aidensfield. He has escaped from custody and PC Crane gets more than his hands full keeping an eye on Susie in order to catch him. Dr. Merrick's waiting room needs redecorating and Vernon Scripps and his colleagues are more than happy to do it for her. Since Bernie is too busy the task goes to David.

Liz Merrick's former lover James Robson comes to Aidensfield to get her back. Before it comes to that he is killed by a single shot from a high powered rifle outside the Aidensfield Arms. But both DC Bradley and PC Bellamy were only yards away from him at the time, and one of them may have been the intended target. As if to prove the latter Bellamy is shot and wounded in the arm at the same spot the next evening. A likely suspect is Frank Clegghorn. He is a master marksman, has recently been dishonourably discharged from the army and dislikes the police just as much as his father Nathaniel does. Tim Barnet has had a break down with his classic Bentley limousine and checks in at the Aidensfield Arms while Bernie Scripps gets it repaired. He makes quite an impression on Gina and he finds her very attractive also.

Joyce Carswell does not get along very well with her mother-in-law. The old lady dies under mysterious circumstances and it seems that Joyce has killed her. But her husband makes it look like the old woman's death was caused by a man, who has robbed several old people in Aidensfield by posing to be from the water board. Oscar Blaketon is making inquiries in a very serious matter. The Aidensfield Darts Trophy resides in the White Lion pub, but it rightfully belongs to the Aidensfield Arms. To settle the matter he and Angus Fergussson, the owner of the White Lion, agree on a final winner-takes-it-all match. David wants to play for the Arms, but when Blaketon will not let him try out for the team he joins the White Lion team instead.

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.

Mrs. Barton reports her husband Harry missing. He went out late at night to hunt a fox which has been after their pheasants and did not return. He is found dead, killed in an apparent accident, but foul play cannot be ruled out. Vernon Scripps risks losing his taxi license when David fails to pick up Mrs. Fforbes-Hepplethwaite, the chairman of the taxi licensing committee. Mrs. Fforbes-Hepplethwaite has set her heart on having the Aidensfield plough dance as the centrepiece of the village fête. However Oscar Blaketon has not been able to find any evidence that the dance ever existed, so Vernon Scripps decides to invent one to soften her up. The plough for the dance is supplied by Mr. Cartwright and Vernon Scripps is so impressed with his daughter Rosie that he hires her to help out as a mechanic at Bernie's garage.

David is helping out in the kitchen during a dinner at Redwood House when the whole party is held at gunpoint by three robbers and the jewels of Joan Maltravers are stolen. The robbers get away although David manages to free himself and the cook Mrs. Woolley and call the police, but their car crashes when the police give chase and they have to continue on foot. David becomes the celebrity of the day and his fame is not diminished when he and Rosie find the stolen gems in the wrecked car. The relationship between Liz Merrick and Ben Norton has improved a lot since their first meeting so much in fact that when he is offered a job as an estate manager in Kenya he asks her to go with him - as his wife!

The preparations for Liz Merrick's and Ben Norton's wedding are in full swing and her replacement as the local GP, Dr. Helen Trent, arrives and immediately has clash with Jenny. Speaking of Jenny Sergeant Merton is very worried about her and talks to Dr. Merrick about her, but the beautiful doctor assures him that there is nothing wrong with Jenny. For once Dr. Merrick is wrong and Jenny leaves the surgery unattended and unlocked. When Dr. Merrick returns she finds the surgery in a mess and some dangerous pills missing. When Jenny is confronted with she gets angry again. Her husband tries to help her, but only manages to convince her sick mind that everybody is against her. And he almost gets arrested for assaulting her when she runs away.

Rosie does the shopping for Miss Edgar. One morning she finds the old woman tied to a chair when she comes to deliver the groceries. Miss Edgar says the assailant posed as a representative from the Council and drove a grey van. It may have been the same van that forced Louise Parry off the road and nearly did the same to David in the brown lorry. David sees to the needs of Miss Parry getting her to the Aidensfield Arms and has Bernie pick up her car. She also asks him to deliver a letter to Dr. Trent's husband Matthew personally. He soon becomes their secret messenger. Meanwhile more victims of the man in the grey van are discovered. PC Walker believes he has information vital to the case, but when Sergeant Nokes refuses to listen to him he does a little investigating of his own among his father's old friends. There is a new constable at the Ashfordly police station. His name is Geoff Younger and this is his very first posting.

Gina discovers a cut off left hand in her dustbin. The police immediately start searching for more body parts in other dustbins in Aidensfield with no luck. The hand was in a box and in that box the police find a note in Bernie Scripps' handwriting. Bernie does not remember writing the note, but from its contents he reckons it is from a rough invoice he wrote to Ashfordly Hall. And it dates five years back. The discovery of a torso the next day leads to the conclusion that the body had been frozen until recently - and that it is murder! Speaking of freezing Aunt Peggy has bought a cheap freezer at a sale. She intends to use it for storing rabbits and pheasants, which she can sell in a store.

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.