In a dream sequence, a ticking metronome transforms into the sweeping windscreen wiper of a sports car travelling at night in heavy rain. The car pulls up before a large Gothic mansion; the dreamer enters and walks to where a painting of the same house hangs above the mantelpiece; the camera zooms in on the door in the painting. The dreamer, Oliver Branwell, awakes with a start an d goes to look out of the window.Branwell is an insurance investigator with Abercrombie and Son, a London firm of adjusters. Though it is Christmas Eve, he is sent north to Lowis Manor by the son, Michael Abercrombie, to probe a recent fire. Mr Tracey Moreton lives there with his mother and wife Sarah. He introduces Branwell to them and to a neighbour, his cousin Clive. Branwell and the wife exchange glances but do not reveal that they had been lovers five years earlier in Hong Kong. Branwell reviews the fire damage and discovers, among several scorched paintings, one resembling the picture in the dream (an old and valuable painting by Bonnington, showing a distant view of the manor) has apparently irreparable damage.The insurance company pays out on the damage and the painting. Months later, in a new case, Charles Highbury, aka 'The Singing Miner', makes an insurance claim for temporary loss of his voice. He has a black eye, given to him by his wife on discovering him in a compromising situation with a Mrs Vere Litchen. Branwell visits Litchen, where she receives him in her bed, and he casually notices a painting of a manor house, seen from a hill, hanging over the fireplace.Later, Moreton turns up with Clive at Branwell's office, apparently suffering from an asthma attack, and asks Branwell to take his wife to the theatre as he has tickets but feels too unwell to go himself. Branwell agrees, and he and Sarah Moreton see a show. Leaving the theatre, the sports car's roof leaks water onto Sarah's clothes, so she and Branwell abandon plans for a meal out and repair to his flat, where she dries off and eats a simple meal he prepares as they discuss how a criminal setting a fire to look like an accident might be caught out. Branwell tells Sarah he is jealous of Moreton's proximity to her, and they kiss...He drives Sarah back to the manor house, arriving late, whereupon Moreton insists Branwell stay for the night. As the men walk through the house, they pass the paintings that survived the fire and Moreton volunteers that he is rehanging them following their repair by Barber and Curry, a renowned London picture restorer. Moreton discloses casually that he knows Branwell and his wife were formerly acquainted. The next morning, Sarah takes Branwell for a drive on the estate. They discuss her reasons for telling her husband about the old relationship, and wonder how best to proceed. Branwell, on seeing the manor from the hillside, comments that it is strangely familiar, but they realise this cannot be from his having seen the Bonnington painting executed in 1822 from that very spot as it had been destroyed in the fire.Driving back to London, Branwell suddenly recalls Vere Litchen's painting and realises it is of Lowis Manor. This suggests the painting had been fraudulently claimed as destroyed but had in fact been sold. Branwell goes back to the flat to find Litchen's American fiance, Wallace Croft, alone. Entering on a pretext, Branwell goes to study the picture. Croft says he owns the contents of the flat, before he declares how wonderful his fiancee is. He had bought the landscape, he says, from an attractive young woman (who it seems from his description could have been Sarah) and he confirms it to be a genuine Bonnington. Litchen comes in and Branwell excuses himself using necessarily ambiguous language to keep both parties happy, but he is troubled as he leaves.Back at the office, Branwell asks a colleague, Fred Connor, if Moreton had recently increased the insurance on Lowis Manor. He learns it has just increased by fifty per cent. Next, visiting Barber and Curry's premises, Branwell confirms that no paintings had been presented for fire damage restoration by Moreton (or anyone else) that matched the description of the allegedly repaired paintings.Branwell educates himself on how to spot fake paintings and, understanding the manor's occupants to be away, breaks into the house one night to check on the authenticity of the paintings. Finding Moreton's dead body downstairs, where it had fallen from a first floor balcony via a damaged balustrade and, nearby, a distinctive smoking cigarette, he next becomes aware a fire is burning in the cellar. He finds the seat of the blaze, spotting a candle burning in a bucket, and tries in vain to extinguish the, by now well established, fire. After calling the fire brigade, pretending to be Tracey Moreton, he escapes. The fire destroys the house and any remaining paintings (which Branwell is certain must be fakes). Arriving home, he recovers from his ordeal and passes a restless night. In the morning, he learns from Michael Abercrombie that the balustrade was broken but temporarily repaired, and had given way under Moreton's weight. Sarah had gone 200 miles to Yorkshire and had just learned of her husband's death. Reluctant to be further involved, Branwell invents an ankle injury and a hangover to excuse passing handling of the case to Michael Abercrombie, who says he will personally visit the fire scene. Branwell keeps silent about what he knows, for Sarah's sake. He receives a friendly letter from Sarah wondering why he has estranged himself from her but assumes it is a smokescreen and tears it up in anger.Weeks pass. In due course, the insurance company settles a £30,000 claim on the widowed Sarah Moreton. Sarah finally visits Branwell, unannounced, but he is still convinced she is implicated and there is a fierce argument in which he wonders whether Sarah had been put in his path purposely by Moreton. She storms out indignantly after inviting Branwell to involve the police if he really believes her to be implicated.Suddenly doubting his previous certainty of Sarah's involvement, Branwell heads to the Litchen flat where the wedding reception is in full swing. Croft confirms that the photo he is shown of Sarah by Branwell is not that of the seller of the landscape. Remorseful, Branwell next forces his way into Sarah's hotel room so that he can explain why he had reacted so violently. Sarah sends a concerned hotel employee away and decides to hear the penitent Branwell out. They talk into the night and decide the £30,000 must be returned. The couple decide to go out on the town to forget all the unpleasantness, where Branwell impetuously enthuses about getting married and Sarah accepts his proposal.The couple visit Abercrombie's the next day, but discover they cannot return the cheque to Michael Abercrombie as he is away on business. Deciding the refund must wait, they depart on honeymoon to France. At breakfast on the terrace of a hotel in southern France, Sarah is horrified to receive a ring in the post, one that Tracey Moreton always wore, and the couple immediately cut short their honeymoon [NB: we had seen the ring on Moreton's hand as he lay dead]. In London again, Branwell (unbeknownst to Sarah) meets Fisher in a cafe to ask him to confirm that the ring had still been on Moreton's finger when he formally identified the body. Fisher says yes; it had been one of several items used to identify Moreton's unrecogniseable corpse.Back at the hotel, Branwell learns from Sarah that an intermediary called Jerome, acting for an anonymous third party, had invited her to afternoon tea to discuss the fire, and had said she would regret not accepting. Jerome had made it clear the client wanted half the pay-out, £15,000, to buy his silence. Sarah becomes convinced that the client is Moreton and has to overcome her panic to meet Jerome at 9pm. Jerome does not arrive but instead, at 10pm, a DI Barnes and DC Watson turn up to ask Branwell for a discreet word about the fire. Barnes implies vaguely that Branwell and Sarah might have been involved in the fire-there was no upstairs phone in the manor house, so Moreton would need to have phoned for assistance from downstairs, rushed upstairs (unlikely, as an asthma sufferer) then somehow fallen back downstairs through the faulty balustrade. The coupe are annoyed at the implication of guilt. On leaving, Barnes suddenly asks about Branwell's sports tourer. The police leave and Branwell tells Sarah they cannot now hand the cheque in as, after the interview, as it would seem they were trying to unload 'hot' money.Branwell encounters Fred Connor in the work washroom, who casts doubt on Branwell's business propriety. Branwell hot-headedly knocks Connor to the floor then learns from Michael that the office is alive with rumours (though he assures Branwell he still has his confidence). Jerome rings through from a call box to apologise for missing the 9pm rendezvous through a bilious attack, but says payment must be made that evening. Jerome arranges to meet in the Embankment Gardens at 9pm, where the Branwells later wait for him out of sight then follow his taxi to the mews premises of an Ambrosine, obviously the forger of the paintings. They realise she was the painting's seller to Croft and is in league with the blackmailer. Clive Fisher walks in and soon confesses to the blackmail but he denies Moreton's murder and any connection to the ring, and he can prove he was in France at a wine tasting when the fire occurred.Returning to their hotel room, the Branwells discover that Sarah's poodle has been kidnapped. Branwell secretes an incriminatory cigarette butt in his jacket pocket but Sarah later finds it there and recognises it as the brand smoked by Moreton's mother. Leaving a note, Sarah departs for Lowis Manor, hotly pursued by Branwell. He passes through the ruins of the manor to find Sarah with Tracey's mother, Mrs Moreton, in adjoining accommodation. The old woman acknowledges she had suspected her son was bent on destroying the manor as an insurance fraud and admits she had been in the house when her son died. They had argued and, in a fit of rage, Tracey had fallen from the balcony to his death. The mother had kidnapped the poodle and sent the ring to pressurise the Branwells to stay silent and thereby preserve her dead son's reputation.The scene dissolves to a board meeting at the adjuster's offices where Mrs Moreton is finishing her confession before leaving with police officers. Branwell makes a statement and declares he will resign as a matter of honour; but, as he walks out into the street, several board members cluster about him keen to persuade him to stay in post. ---