A market traders van is hijacked and stolen on the moors. Nick starts to investigate and suspects Lord Ashfordly's son, who he later arrests for drink driving. Kate unintentionally starts a chicken pox epidemic when she starts a mother and baby group. Nick spots Claude wearing a brand new pair of boots several sizes too small which turns out to be part of market traders stolen stock. However, he doesn't think Claude is involved, but Blaketon disagrees. A local girl is pregnant and confides in Kate as to whom the father is. Nick later identifies the hijacker as Lord Ashfordly's new chauffeur, who also turns out to be the father of the local girl's baby.

An elderly widower, a Mr. Miller from London comes and stays in the village and stays in a boarding house opposite the police house run by Mrs. ?. Milner however is not a well man and has to visit Kate at the surgery. Meanwhile Claude has been asked to do a barn clearance, and Nick buys the remains of an old MG off him for only £25. Claude dramatically underestimates its real value and is later annoyed by this, and complains to Blaketon. Milner it seems has an old grudge against Nick and he wants his revenge. It turns out that when Nick was down in the Met he arrested Milner's granddaughter after she stabbed her husband in self defence. Milner now wants to hurt Nick, the way Nick hurt him. He takes Kate as a hostage and is armed with a pistol. Kate manages to talk Milner round because she has to rush off to give a young girl a vital injection.

Nick interrupts an armed robbery which is taking place at the Aidensfield's Arms and his hit over the head and ends up locked in the cellar with George and Claude. During the night Greengrass starts to drink himself silly and ends up giving Nick tip offs about offences that have been committed in the area recently. In the morning they are all found and rescued With a little help from Claude Nick suspects a known villain called Robinson who has a record for armed robberies and goes to visit his home, where is wife - Nell and her two daughters insist he has run of with another woman. But it emerges he in fact died from a heart attack during another recent robbery and was left on Nells doorstep and she and her daughter buried him on the moors some they could still came his National Assistance. As Nell is being questioned another robbery happens and it turns out Nell and her daughters carried on with the robberies. Meanwhile Nick shows up Claude by giving him recognition for all the crimes

Local farmer, Reg Manston notices one of his cows looks very ill and asks Nick to visit him. On Nick's arrival, Manston tells Nick that he suspects the animal may infected with the highly contagious disease known as Foot and Mouth. The local vet - Martin Thomas is called in performs test on Manston's herd. He phones the ministry of Agriculture while and sends the his tests away for confirmation of the disease. Meanwhile Nick as part of the regulations of the disease has to guard the farm entrance to check no one enters or leave the farm. The whole area becomes affected by the outbreak when it means that no social events can happen at the risk of the disease spreading, which annoys George whose bar is totally empty of customers. Meanwhile another farmer (and Manston's neighbour), Sam Carver is breaking the disease outbreak regulations by transporting his infected dead sheep to another area. In the meantime Manston's herd are shot and burned to prevent the disease from spreading. After

A black soldier called Ken Marston who is on exercises in the area has been getting bullied by his racist Sergeant - Sgt Nicholls. Nicholls follows Marston during the exercise and intends to shoot Ken as he's reported Nicholls to his superiors. However on top of a cliff face Nicholls and Kenget in a confrontation and Nicholls falls. Ken then goes on the run thinking he's killed him. Meanwhile Nick investigates a break in at a farm and suspects Claude is responsible. and is on the run after he thinks he has killed him. He starts to search for a childhood friend who lives in the area. He finds his friends wife and son, only to discover his friend is dead. Meanwhile Kate is treating his window whose son is seriously disturbed by his fathers death, may have to be taken into care. The widow blames Kate for this, believing that she contacted the authorities, when in fact it was Ferrenby. The situation is sorted out eventually, with the help of Alex and Kate and the boy is able to stay with h

Rosie, the wife of local villain, Terry Tinniswood takes an overdose and Nick and Kate are left minding her children. Once she's recovered, Rosie tells Nick her husband is in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Nick finds evidence to support Rosie's claims that her husband was fitted up, possibly by Nick's predecessor in Aidensfield, Rowley Carsons who suddenly retired from the force. Blaketon warns Nick and tells him to leave it, insisting Carsons retired because he had Cancer. Nick who now believes that there was some sort of cover up persists with his investigation. Carsons turns up and confesses to fitting Tinniswood up by planting evidence in his truck. Meanwhile Phil is to marry his girlfriend who says she's pregnant. but he later finds that she has been seeing her ex-boyfriend who turns out to be the man who beat up Phil at his stag night.

Nick and Kate fall out when an old boyfriend of hers turns up. Soon after his arrival he becomes the prime suspect in a hit-and-run incident and Nick is forced to tell him not to leave the area while it's investigated. Meanwhile a local bank informs the police of a woman acting suspiciously around the bank. Nick and Phil go to investigate, only to discover the woman is in fact the famous crime writer, Amanda Young doing research for her next novel. Meanwhile Phil, on behalf of his football team organizes a talent contest where Greengrass is running a book on who will win. The hit-and-run incident is then revealed to be down to one of Phil's rivals on the football field. And Claude sells some moor land to the MoD and treats himself to a big and flashy pink Chrysler Imperial car!

Lord Ashfordly's winter pheasant shoot is seriously disrupted when the entire contents of his game larder are stolen. There is an out break of petty thefts on Nick's patch and when he investigates, his enquiries make him believe that an incestuous relationship is the reason behind the thefts. Susan Rawlings, a teenage daughter of Lord Ashfordly's game keeper, is pregnant and steals money from Greengrass to pay for an illegal abortion. Unaware of this, her brother Chris stole the pheasants in order to raise cash for the same purpose. Susan has the abortion, but ends up in hospital. When Kate and Ferrenby find out, they go to see the woman responsible for doing it and warn her of the dangers involved. Chris it turns out is the father of his sister's unborn child.

The fair arrives in Aidensfield to the annoyance of local caravan site owner, Edna Plummer. It turns out that her caravan site is used as a convenient meeting place by her criminal brother. He is about to receive some stolen works of art from amateur smuggler, Norman Currie, who is on his way back home from a trip to Holland with his family. Currie's son takes one of the paintings and swaps it for free rides at the fair. Workers at the fair sell the painting to Greengrass who tries to sell it to Ferrenby who realises its true value and tells Nick. Meanwhile two 5 year olds go missing but return unharmed. Kate discovers the children had a mysterious friend, who turns out to be a local man whose wife and child were recently killed in an accident.