Having extricated himself from the embarrassment of murdering his lady parishioner, the Reverend Francis Oughterard is now plunged into the traumas of art theft. Forced by the shady Nicholas Ingaza into being a fence for stolen paintings, he endures the investigative probings of terrifying female novelist & amateur sleuth, Maud Tubby Pole, hell-bent on portraying him in her next novel. Haunted by the recent murder & fearful of exposure in his new role of 'receiver', the Reverend blunders haplessly in mesh of intrigue & risible deceit. As before, his antics are commented upon by his cat, the acidic Maurice, & redoubtable bone-grinding ally, the dog Bouncer.