Frank Scully, an out-of-work journalist, goes to stay for a few days with friends Donald and Sylvia Harper in Micklethorpe, a small town in the Yorkshire Dales. Miss Banner, the deeply-religious new owner of the local newspaper, asks him to stay on as editor of the paper. Frank unwittingly revives long-dead local scandals when he innocently publishes a series of anonymous articles that Miss Banner has written. Matters are further complicated when he becomes involved in a love triangle with Sylvia Harper and Fiona Neave, who owns the company that prints the newspaper - and Miss Banner threatens to use her column to reveal some very compromising details about Fiona.