Gulley Jimson is a boorish aging artist recently released from prison. A swindler in search of his next art project, he hunkers down in the penthouse of would-be patrons the Beeders while they go on an extended vacation; he paints a mural on their wall, pawns their valuables and, along with the sculptor Abel, inadvertently smashes a large hole in their floor. Jimson's next project is an even larger wall in an abandoned church.

John Lewis is bored of his job and his wife. Then Liz, wife of a local councillor, sets her sights on him. But this is risky stuff in a Welsh valleys town - if he and Liz ever manage to consummate their affair, that is.

German scholar Wolf Hauser arrives for a year at Cambridge. Apart from his studies, he tries to muck in with the very English non-academic goings-on while romancing pretty Girton girl Ann Wainwright.

The police, with the help of a baker, try to find the owner a loaf of bread accidentally poisoned with potassium cyanide.

Serving a jail sentence for a crime he didn't commit, Paul Langley makes several attempts to escape from prison, in order to clear his name. He also has other problems, his wife is about to go into labor with their first baby.

A mother tries to prevent her younger son being led astray by his delinquent elder brother.