Ken makes a start on renovating Orchard Cottage. Pam Strong, one of his neighbours and the widow of a fireman, tentatively asks him for help because her son John has changed suddenly: he has dropped out of college, become sullen and uncommunicative and has started locking himself in his room. She also suspects that he may be stealing from her. Something is wrong - could it be drugs, Pam wonders. John has become friendly with another teenager called Mark who rents room at a nearby farm.

Mark and John steal a car and drive around, terrifying the locals. The car hits a man and woman on a bridge, but Mark drives on, dumping the car in a quarry and swearing John to silence. But John later recognises the man that was knocked down as a local doctor, James Harlon. It was Harlon who got John his part-time job as a porter at the hospital.

Ken visits Dr Harlon, not realising that connection with John and the accident. Dr Harlon describes John as quiet and a bit of a loner, but not the sort to be