James and Helen are about to celebrate their first wedding anniversary and Tristan suggests to James that they go to the Harlequin, a modest restaurant that opened recently. It turns out to be anything but and is in fact one of the poshest restaurants in the area. Siegfried starts seeing Margery Egerton. Tristan, now a free man since being forbidden to see Miss Mount, sets his sights on previous conquests. Siegfried and Tristan ask James to arbitrate when they both want the same evening off. James has to pay several visits to Mr. Bailes whose dog seems to take great delight in scaring the wits out of him.

Siegfried takes Tristan to task for not mending a hole in the fence. Tristan announces that he now refuses to subject himself to Siegfried's tyranny but he is given 24 hours to mend the fence or face the consequences. Tristan tries to recruit James in his battle with Siegfried, but James will have nothing to do with it. Siegfried comes up with the perfect response. James operates on a sick calf but those assisting him are worse off than the calf. As a result, James comes down with a bad case of the flu. James is also concerned at having to give bad news to Andrew Vine about his dog, given his recent experience with Paul Cotterell.