Rumpole defends his clergyman nephew in an ecclesiastical court, against charges of adultery - of which the bishop takes a dim view. Rumpole's colleagues Ballard and Erskine-Brown appear for the prosecution.
Rumpole fights a claim for libel filed by a woman writer against a low newspaper.
Claude Erskine-Brown moves in with Rumpole after being photographed at a night-club of ill repute, to the fury of Phyllida.