The Marfia aren't about to let Steed get in the way of their lucrative drug-smuggling operation between Britain and North America, and arrange for him to be assassinated. Steed survives, and tracks his intended killer to a circus, where some of the clowns prove to be anything but figures of fun.

Colonel Psev, a mysterious and unseen foreign spy with a toy fixation, arrives in London to infiltrate a defence conference. His four aides bully Brodny, the ambassador, until he comes up with a cunning ruse: Gordon Webster, rakish male model, is Steed's double.