Things aren't looking good for ex-cop Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton): his detective agency is in dire financial straits and cases are thin on the ground. So when a sobbing Lu Shakespeare (Jo Joyner) appears in his office, he sees a solution to his cash flow worries.

When ominous noises on the roof startle Dora Bentley in the middle of the night she panics and calls out for help. Brusque care home owner Penelope Pincott dismisses her concerns - it was only a bad dream and she's far more concerned with the mysterious power cuts and inexplicable cockroach infestations.

After the death of Ardenwicke Hall's beloved Lord Charlie, a community of allotment holders are threatened with eviction by Lady Mortimer. Frank and Lu are called in by Dolly and the Major, to investigate the change in Lady M which they place firmly at the feet of gruff new Estate Manager, Fitzallen.

Old school magician, Lawrence Pross, is in the midst of his grand finale when tragedy strikes and his unlucky volunteer is fatally trapped in his medieval iron maiden. Accused of involuntary manslaughter, Lawrence is reduced to performing cheap tricks to passing tourists.

When the Mayor of Arden is discovered murdered in his isolated cottage suspicion falls on local criminal, Billy the Brick Porters, but he's nowhere to be found. DI Marlowe is straight on to Frank's case: she knows Frank and Billy have history where would he go to hide out?

It's a slow day in the office for Frank and Lu until a hysterical Sally Balthasar flies into the office in a whirlwind of tears they have to help her, someone's threatening her and she simply cannot perform under these conditions. Sally reveals she's in town staging her new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet but someone's left a menacing message on her hotel room window.