
Major Sinclair Yeates discovers the top brass won't promote him beyond major, so he decides to resign and take a post as the Resident Magistrate in West Ireland. Yeates soon discovers his new landlord hasn't been completely honest with him and everything Yeates does somehow ends up back-firing on him.

Major Sinclair Yeates, an Englishman, arrives in a rural area of Victorian Ireland. He has married his colonel's daughter and has decided to take up a new career as a Resident Magistrate. Major Yeates quickly meets the hard-riding Knox clan, including Great Uncle McCarthy and young Flurry Knox, his landlord.

Continuing the story of Major Sinclair Yeates's experiences in Ireland. He has to deal with a remarkable dispute about a young horse. Meanwhile, the Major's wife, Phillipa, arrives from England.

Yeates and Philippa visit a horse fair in search of a suitable mount for a forthcoming hunt.

Yeates and his cousin Basil fear their careers are ruined when they are caught in a police raid at the Brickleys.