Ken is employed by a genial Irishman, Erroll McLaverty, to bring a canal boat back to Birmingham from near London. He takes Doreen and plans a romantic weekend. But two scruffy men, Appleby and Laing, are following the boat. Then Ken and Doreen hear strange sounds from the boat's cargo hold. They discover that an escaped convict, Alan Prendergast, is hiding in the boat - McLaverty had employed Ken to smuggle Alan back to his father, Walter Prendergast.

Debbie thinks that Ken is getting very unfit so she takes him out jogging.

A spirited elderly woman, Irene Maplethorpe, is being victimised by pranks at Moat Farm where she lives. A dead sheep is found in a water-trough; cattle get loose; the farmyard is flooded; she gets anonymous phone calls and finally a barn is "accidentally" demolished by a JCB.

A consortium of unscrupulous property developers, Rathbone, Keen and Blackwater (RKB), has designs on the land where Moat Farm is situated. They are planning to build ""luxury dwellings"" there, even though they don't yet own the land. RKB put pressure on Irene's wimpish nephew, Philip Lainchbury, who runs a sawmill that is in financial difficulties, to get him to persuade Irene to move.

RKB offer Harry the chance to invest in the consortium and take him shooting on the land next to Moat Farm. Irene demands that they leave her alone - and shoots out the tyres of Rathbone's car to emphasise her point. Irene suspects that her nephew is involve

Ken is approached by Marion Kershaw who is looking for her missing husband, Geoff, who is in ""the import/export business"". Ken soon discovers that Geoff Kershaw owes money to the taxman. At the squash court that Kershaw uses, Ken finds a holdall containing a large amount of cash, a false passport and a gun.

The police tell him that Kershaw is wanted for running an antiques smuggling business, stealing antiques around the country and sending them abroad. Ken and Harry agree to stage a fake robbery at Woodcote Park so as to have some ""stolen"" antiques with which to tempt the smugglers. The local contact for them turns out to be Eric Beveridge, an antiques dealer who has just sold Helen some chairs for Woodcote Park.

Geoff and Marion meet up at a deserted quarry - the ""missing person"" story is evidently a cover. With Harry and the police tailing them, Beveridge takes Ken to the quarry where Marion recognises Ken. After a dramatic chase, Beveridge and the Kershaws are arrested. Helen catch

A middle-aged couple, Terry and Gill Conroy, driving an expensive Jaguar, break down in a residential street, outside the house owned by George and Irene Boxall. The Boxalls offer them a cup of tea while the Conroys wait for the breakdown truck to arrive. In recompense, Terry Conroy invites the Boxalls to join them at a Tyrolean night.

But all is not as it seems. When the Conroys never turn up at the Tyrolean night (which is being held at Woodcote Park), George and Irene become suspicious and ask Ken for help.

A mysterious young woman, Meryl Spicer, turns up at Woodcote Park, looking for Helen. She claims to be Helen's long-lost daughter whom Helen had given away for adoption (!)

It turns out that the Conroys used the Tyrolean invitation simply as an excuse to get the Boxalls out of their house, with Meryl at Woodcote Park to alert the Conroys as soon as the Boxalls leave to come home. The reason for this subterfuge is that Tom Vallance, a bank robber, had hidden some plans in the Boxa