Things aren't looking good for ex-cop Frank Hathaway: his detective agency is in dire financial straits and cases are thin on the ground. So when a sobbing Lu Shakespeare 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. Penelope and hapless husband Owain enlist the services of Frank and Lu - someone's trying to sabotage their care home but they just don't know who, or why.

Undertaker Peter Quintus leads a quiet and unassuming life with his loving wife Anne. So when he's visited one morning by two mysterious hitmen who inform him he has just 24 hours to live because of an undisclosed misdemeanour he goes into a tailspin.

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. His daughter Maggie doesn't believe the trick was faulty and convinces Lawrence to enlist Frank and Lu.

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.