Excited and busy, plans for the approaching May Day Fair are under way in the village but everything is not as peaceful as it might be in the Larkins' world.

Excited and busy, plans for the approaching May Day Fair are under way in the village but everything is not as peaceful as it might be in the Larkins' world. Mariette is keen to leave home and see the world.

Ma and Pop are devastated and doing their best to convince her to stay. Even the arrival of suave Tom Fisher doesn't seem to have the desired effect. Meanwhile Pop is trying to save Miss Pilchester from having to sell her house to pushy Mr Rance, an outsider from London. Ma is furious that village gossip (particularly from the Normans) about Pop suggests he is uncultured and illiterate.

Pop buys Ma a Rolls Royce to help rectify matters and Ma has her heart set on Pop being Master of Hounds and taking the crown from Alec Norman (who is still fuming that Montgomery Larkin scraped his sports car). Things come to a head at the May Day Fair Charity Auction where Alec Norman mistakenly buys a 'Turner' painting that turns out to be a Montgomery Larkin original. But with the arrival of the tax man things are looking bleak for the Larkins.