Police constable Nick Rowan finds himself on duty the moment he crosses the Aidensfield boundary. He and his wife have travelled up from London to Aidensfield, a little village in North Yorkshire.

Kate calls Nick lucky as he is already starting to feel quite comfortable after their move northwards. Nick pursues a moorland flasher and drunken hikers, while Kate encounters abuse when she helps a woman with a bullying husband, but it's a bullying cleaner who makes the coppers fume.

Nick gets an anonymous tip-off about a pop star's undesirable predilections, while a local shopkeeper, Charlie Denby, enjoys the company of young male customers, but some people think it's too much. Claude applies to become the gardener of the elderly sisters.

Burning desires of all kinds bring problems for Nick and Kate. A wandering horse and wandering salmon also cause frustration.

Jeff Randall is confined to his bed. He has met with an accident - a fall from a balcony - and he's therefore a captive audience when Marty Hopkirk insists on telling of a case he handled entirely on his own, without mentioning it to Jeff, before he met his death and became a ghost. Jeff is forced to listen in disbelief to a remarkable spy drama which began with a telephone call asking for him.

PC Nick Rowan investigates the strange case of the house-proud housebreaker, and Aidensfield has seen a spat of burglaries recently and in each one only silverware has been stolen. However, a common and baffling clue in every case is the fact that the thief tidies the house. Rowan also becomes suspicious of the do-gooder, considered by many to be a `saint'.