Tim is prompting on the local production of Hamlet but his mind is elsewhere. Father has disappeared and Mother threatens to start a new life with Uncle Claud. How will it all end?

Tim pursues his piano teacher, Miss Clanger, while trying to solve the riddle left in a note from his dead Uncle Barstable.

Dead and buried at 43! Shy, retiring Tim won't make a clean break and sets out to prove he's still as lively as a kitten.