Humphrey and Esther are called to an unlocked house where the family, Matthew and Laura Colbert and their two children, have disappeared, leaving an unfinished evening meal, television and lights on, and the car still in the driveway. PC Kelby is looking into a hit-and-run with his only clue: pieces of plastic from a broken headlight. Following her personal tragedy, Martha is preparing to open her cafe but the bank refuses her loan and Humphrey has bought a boat, straining their relationship. Humphrey returns to the house and a missing key and a mobile phone belonging to the hit and run victim lead him to a solution. Martha is thrown a lifeline by local vineyard owner Archie Hughes, to whom she had been previously engaged. Humphrey misses the opening of the cafe to save the Colbert's lives.

A man is found dead of a suspected heart attack in the middle of a newly made crop circle at North Farm with no identification and the last page of Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations hidden in his sock. Investigations find his car 10 miles away at the site of an illegal rave with a map of North Farm. The farm is a centre of many sightings of alien ships that the owners, brother and sister Andrew and Cassie Parker, use to supplement the farm's income. Further investigation reveal their estranged father had died recently in prison serving a sentence for a gold bullion robbery that was never recovered. Martha is worried by a food critic coming to review the cafe. She also confides to Humphrey she does not wish to continue the IVF treatment and Archie tries to rekindle their romance with a kiss.

Lucy Elliot's home is burgled and fingerprints and a boot print found at the scene lead to her ex-girlfriend Hayley Collins, who at the time of the robbery was in the police station cells. The modus operandi of the theft was of known local thief Atticus Styles, who lived within a hundred yards of the burglary, but had an alibi. Elliot's solicitor Kate Nolan, her current girlfriend, worked for the firm that had represented Styles in the past. Esther struggles with the case as Humphrey, distracted by his personal problems, is unable to give the case his full attention. Unable to resolve his personal problems, Humphrey leaves Shipton Abbot for a holiday on Saint Marie and a reunion with old friends Commissioner Patterson and Catherine, and meets the current police team led by DI Neville Parker. An unexpected second reunion on Saint Marie also takes place.