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.

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.