There is a new face at the police station in Ashfordly. Probationary PC Tom Nicholson. He is a transfer from Scarborough, where he made quite a splash of himself and even hit the front page of the local newspaper. So PC Bellamy and PC Ventress decide to have a little fun at his expense. A number of items have gone missing from Lord Ashfordly's African collection. Lord Ashfordly is contacted by Chief Daniel Moketso, who asks his lordship to return some items which belong to his tribe's legacy, and the missing items are part of that legacy. Vernon Scripps tries his luck running a taxi service. If only it was not for the customers.

Cupid's little arrows hit everybody. Even Lord Ashfordly, who surprises everybody by introducing his new wife. On the first night in Aidensfield the newlyweds are held up by two masked and armed robbers. They especially seem to be targeting Lady Ashfordly, who is assaulted again the next day, and PC Bradley is assigned as her chauffeur and body guard. Joyce Jowett's sister has died and she needs Bernie Scripps' services as an undertaker. She is very demanding and as might be expected he cannot do well - or cheap - enough.

Marek Starosta and his daughter Hannah are Lady Patricia's guests at Ashfordly Hall. They are world class violinists and shortly after their arrival they notice that a very valuable violin is missing. But Hannah is more interested in PC Crane, who is sent to investigate, than in playing the violin much to the annoyance of her father. And her feelings are returned. Marek Starosta also suffers from a form of arthritis which eventually will make it impossible for him to play. Big and Little Jim turn up in Aidensfield and ask for Vernon Scripps. They are his cousins from Liverpool. Big Jim suggests that they tear down the old Greengrass farm and build a mansion more suitable to Vernon's wealth instead.

PC Crane and PC Bellamy give chase to a couple of hooligans in a car. When they pass the bus stop in Aidensfield Paul Dibley is teased by a school friend and runs right smack into the side of Bellamy's passing police car. He suffers only a broken leg and some bruises, but his father Don wants PC Bellamy prosecuted. Paul's sister Tracey has just started as a maid at Ashfordly Hall when it is discovered that she is pregnant. Understandably she is afraid to tell her father especially since the father of the baby is her cousin Lenny. To make things worse Tracey gets a crush on PC Crane and names him as the father instead when her parents find out about her pregnancy.

Oscar Blaketon gets a visit from his old colleague Harry Hawkswell. Hawkswell is mistaken for the very prominent judge Yardley by a communist cell in Ashfordly, who has been ordered to kill him by their controllers in London. Unpleasantness's of another kind awaits Vernon Scripps. He is going to be inspected by the Inland Revenue because of the huge fortune he recently gained - and lost! But he still has some undeclared money and goes into the woods one night to bury it, when he is nearly killed by a puma. Or at least so he thinks.

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...

Young Denny gets hurt in a hunting accident at the Ashfordly estate. Luckily he sustains only a flesh wound. The police interview all the members of the hunting party to get a clear picture and also collect their guns for testing. But the estate manager Richard Bentham for some reason does not want them to talk to the beaters Gary and Colin, whom he tells to scarper. Bentham also fails to report an accident he has with his Land Rover because the brakes were sabotaged. Furthermore when PC Bellamy questions Denny the boy says that the shooting was no accident. That Bentham did it deliberately!

Lord Ashfordly plays host to a group of ex-offenders, who will be working on the estate under the supervision of Eric Grey as part of a rehabilitation programme. But not all of the young men are that keen on getting rehabilitated and only want to make trouble. For starters they steal Oscar Blaketon's car when he refuses to serve them at the pub. Dorothy Plum is complaining that someone is disturbing her little dog Marigold, but a search of her garden and the road outside turns up nothing. The old lady gets really worried when the dog disappears and she offers a big reward to get it back. Aunt Peggy is not a woman to let such an opportunity pass. She gets a similar dog with the help of an old friend and tries to return it to its "rightful owner" after a small makeover.

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.