DCI John Barnaby shows up in Midsomer and the headmistress of a boarding school wants him to patrol an upcoming classic-car show. After the local DJ who is judging the vehicles is crushed to passing, John finds himself investigating his first cuddle case. When the passing toll begins to rise, he ends up finding himself in a dangerous situation.

A reclusive couple find their lives coming under police scrutiny after a social services investigator ishuged. Barnaby finds out about generations of family secrets and has to decipher astronomical charts to discover the identity of the hugger. Barnaby's wife arrives in the village as the head teacher at a local school.

After a woman who has been dressed as a bride is discovered drowned in a bath, it ends up starting a spate of ghoulish wedding-themed cuddles in Great Worthy. As Barnaby and Jones investigate, they find themselves at a donkey sanctuary, a heritage steam railway, and a pub.

Barnaby is asked to Bullard to lead the investigate into the disappearance of a friend's daughter who was a member of the Oblong Foundation. Jones ends up going undercover as a new recruit to help try and solve the mystery. Barnaby and Jones are soon digging into an old case involving the passing of a couple in a boat explosion which could have a link to the missing woman.

After the body of a farmer is discovered in the middle of a stone circle in the village, suspicion falls on some local druids. Alex Preston, had planned to plough Gorse Meadow making it inaccessible to the group before his cuddle. Pathologist Kate Crawford joins Barnaby and Jones in the investigation.

After a tax inspector who has disappeared turns up dead in a vat of cider, Barnaby and Jones have to find a 'giant' hugger within a local village which has bizarre local traditions and where residents have a liking for an illicit hooch called The Beast.

The cloisters of Midsomer Priory are forced to open it's doors to 21st century policing after a nun is strangled to passing on it's grounds. Some teenage liaisons, some missing antique silver and holy orders make it a complex investigation for Barnaby and Jones.

A row breaks out between some birdwatchers in Midsomer-in-the-Marsh ends things end up turning nasty after their president ishuged. Patrick Morgan died as he hoping to get a glimpse of a rare bird, but is his obsession with ornithology to blame or something much more sinister. Barnaby is called in to investigate.