Hamish MacBeth

Tongues are set wagging in Lochdubh,when the laird,Major MaClean,returns from holiday in Italy with a woman in tow the glamorous and sensual Fiona McLeod.

Hamish goes on holiday to Laggan-Laggan Island and finds lodgings at St. Columba's,the home of FR. Mcphail,a Catholic priest,and his vociferous Protestant lodger,Enoch McDuff.

A Glasgow alley-way: 14-year-old Frankie Bryce moves swiftly,anxious of pursuit. Urgently,he beckons to his 22-year-old aunt,Jean Foley,who is working in the window of a hairdressers' salon.

The Stag Bar regulars are frantically placing bets on Frankie Bryce to win the Willie McGraw Memorial Trophy,in the annual singing competition between Lochdubh and the neighbouring village,Dunbracken.

Lachlan,a hard taskmaster,is particularly harsh on Lachie Jnr. When Lachie mutters that it's only a game,Lachlan roars with indignation,invoking the proud history of the sport.

South America: One-legged,one-eyed,hook-armed,Kenneth Mclver,long-lost (and notoriously accident-prone) brother of TV John,is sprung from a seedy jail by Torquil Farquar Mcfarquar,international businessman.

Sitting up late at night,tending an ashen-faced Lachlan,Doc discovers an article about Ava in a copy of The Lancet: an account of the pain-killing potential of hypnotism.