Set in the seediest of boarding houses, Rigsby the landlord tries to rise above the squalor with his pretensions of aristocracy. However, this is not the worst of his faults: he's penny-pinching, self-centered and prejudiced against anyone and anything, as his hapless lodgers quickly find out.

Rigsby doesn't believe Philip when he tells him that back home in Africa he is considered to have magic powers, so he arranges a demonstration.

For Ruth's birthday they all go out for a meal. Rigsby borrows a dinner jacket from Spooner without telling him, but is found out when Spooner comes into the restaurant and confronts him.

In trying to help Rigsby improve his love life, Alan give him some pills to help him relax. He omits to tell him that they will send him to sleep and turn his water green. Philip give him a piece of wood, which he later discovers is from one of his wardrobes, and tells him it is a piece of 'love wood' that needs burning.

Sponner is playing his radio loud all night because he can't sleep after breaking his leg falling over the cat. But no one wants to be the one to tell him to keep the noise down.

The policeman who comes to investigate the stalker reported by Ruth does not appear to be what he seems.