Mainwaring stops Jones from cashing any more cheques because his bank balance is in the red. An investigation reveals an increasing train of debtors, leading back through an orphanage Jones has been supplying with meat to Hodges.

Mainwaring's drunken brother Barry arrives in Walmington-on-Sea claiming that their father's pocket watch, held by Mainwaring, belongs to him. Mainwaring gives him the pocket watch to assuage him, but Barry gatecrashes Mainwaring's party for local dignitaries.