A romantic novelist called Honor Gayle arrives in Aidensfield and begins using Mike as an inspiration for her books, which soon begins to rub the bobby up the wrong way. However, he is soon distracted when two young offenders visiting the village for labouring work go missing. Meanwhile, Blaketon goes head-to-head with Tom Drabble in the Ashfordly election. Drabble is being supported by Greengrass and a reluctant Bernie, causing fresh conflict between the arch-enemies.

Craddock is irked when the Chief Constable asks Blaketon to organize a Crime Prevention committee as tension boils over within the community following a number of unsolved burglaries. Blaketon tries to prove the committee's value by investigating a robbery at a brewery. However, it soon leads Mike into an encounter with a strange individual whose odd behaviour intrigues him. Meanwhile, Greengrass begins rewriting history when he takes a group of Norwegian history students on a tour of Yorkshire. But David soon gets carried away when the students take an interest in historical Viking sites. Elsewhere, a handsome Irishman called Andy Ryan checks into the Aidensfield Arms and whisks Gina off her feet!