Sandy decides to travel to Greenock on Clydeside to collect his Freedom of the City award. As he has no living relatives or close friends, he invites William to accompany him on condition he behaves himself.

When Sandy and William arrive in the old shipbuilding town, they meet the Provost's secretary Moira. It becomes clear that his hosts really know virtually nothing about Sandy - in fact Moira asks to interview him so she can write up the Provost's speech for the ceremony.

The following day, Sandy shows William around his birthplace. They visit the tenement where he was born and meet a man he was at school with. He isn't wholly friendly and, when they return to the hotel, there is a message: "Do you know how much pain you left behind. Why?". Sandy is anxious, especially when another message appears on the morning of the ceremony: "Why, oh why? Now it's your turn to feel the pain. You will suffer as others have suffered".

So the race is on to uncover who exactly is out to get Sandy and why. The solution to the riddle is finally revealed at the Freedom of Greenock ceremony, when the roots of everyone's resentment are uncovered.