 Ron Cooper is an old army veteran with enough illegal weapons, ammunition and explosives to run his own militia. He gets injured when a rifle backfires and is taken to hospital. Unknown to him four boys have found his collection and they "borrow" a box of ammunition not knowing how dangerous it is. Furthermore Greengrass buys some hand grenades from Cooper s helper Morris and cleans out lord Ashfordly s entire stock of trout. Meanwhile Kate Rowan s work at Radcliffe s surgery in Whitby is taking its toll on their marriage and they start to drift apart, when Kate discovers that she is pregnant.