The police are on the lookout for stolen Russian icons which have been unloaded in or around Whitby from a fishing boat owned by Ingmar Larsen who is currently in prison for smuggling and violence. The captain of the boat claims he thought they were smuggling cigarettes and that they were ambushed by pirates just off shore. They recover one of the icons at an antique shop, and the owner tells PC Walker that he bought it from a blonde woman in her thirties. Lord Ashfordly is having a banquet for true gourmets. Vernon Scripps quite the right idea when he learns about truffles from the Italian Giovanni Viora, but he thinks the price is somewhat on the high side and decides to go looking for them himself. To find them you need a pig, but in lack one of those Alfred will have to do. And then of course you also need a truffle...

. 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.