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.
A local publican neatly sidesteps Yeates' objections to beer sales at the annual St Peter and St Paul's Day Games.
Major Sinclair Yeates has settled in as a magistrate in rural Ireland and even his wife Philippa is taking to the country. And with Flurry Knox in love with his cousin, it seems that neither love nor fire should always be taken at face value.