A confidence trickster comes to stay at the hotel, just after Basil has taken an ad in a posh magazine to upgrade the clientele.

The Fawltys take a holiday and leave Polly and Manuel to run the place just as O'Reilly's builders come to redo the lobby.

Die Serie handelt von dem cholerischen, überforderten Hotelbesitzer Basil Fawlty, seiner resoluten Frau Sybil Fawlty, dem kaum englisch sprechenden, spanischen Kellner Manuel und dem Zimmermädchen Polly, die sich immer wieder als Retterin des Hotels erweist. Basil rastet völlig aus, als er auch noch die frisch verliebte Polly beim lasziven Knutschen an der Rezeption erwischt. Doch eine im Hotel abgestiegene angetrunkene, französische Antiquitätenhändlerin, die spät nachts im knappen Bademantel von Basil Einlass fordert, bringt den vermeintlichen Moralpapst selbst in mehr als zweideutige Situationen, an der auch Küchenhilfe Manuel nicht ganz unbeteiligt ist. Trotz einer intern geplanten Liebes-Hochzeit ist das erotisch verwirrende Hotel-Verhängnis nicht mehr aufzuhalten ...

Some inspectors are in town and Basil gets paranoid, so he alternately fawns over and offends his guests.

To bring the right type of crowd into the hotel Basil establishes a Gourmet Night.

Sybil goes into the hospital for toe surgery, leaving Basil to cope with a fire drill single-handed. After a couple of blows on the head, Basil tells some German guests where Germany went wrong in WWII.

A selectively deaf woman named Mrs Richards insists that she has had a large amount of money stolen at the hotel, and against Sybil's wishes Basil puts a fiver on Dragonfly.

A psychiatrist and his wife come to stay and Basil thinks Sybil is telling them all about his life.

An American and his wife get unsatisfactory service at Fawlty Towers when he orders a Waldorf salad, after the kitchen has closed.

Unknown to Basil, a guest dies in the night and he tries to serve him breakfast anyway and an obnoxious woman insists on service for her dog.

Sybil leaves before Basil's surprise anniversary party and Basil spends the evening trying to convince their friends she's ill.

The health inspector is coming and Basil tells Manuel to get rid of his pet rat, which he later finds out is named Basil.