Amanda Peagram, a local landowner's daughter, is engaged to Roger Hall, and Lovejoy (on the instructions of Amanda's father) is furnishing a house with antiques for the couple. Unhappily, Amanda is not impressed, while Roger continues to play the field. At the wedding, Lovejoy overhears a row between Roger and Amanda's father and later finds Roger's body hidden in a suit of armour... but the body vanishes and nobody believes him. After the wedding, Roger is treated as a missing person. Lovejoy insists Roger is dead, but he can't produce the body - so he decides to investigate the murder and solve the mystery.

Jane's husband, Alexander, has a new business partner called Joe Gruder, but Lovejoy is suspicious of him. Jane gets a call from Lily Gruder, Joe's wife, who has a problem with some pearls and a pawnbroker, and Lovejoy decides to look into Joe's affairs. Mr Gruder does not come up smelling of roses.