Unsworth is asked to handle Oldshaw's biggest and most important funeral.

Enter sister-in-law Gladys, willed on the firm by Ivy's late, malicious husband.

Billy discovers his being an undertaker puts the girls off.

The Unsworths are drawn into a trade war when Percy Oltenshaw starts poaching ""clients"" vis Miss Askith, the local postmistress; and Ivy nearly makes a terrible mistake until Amy reads her future in the tea-leaves.

The firm is plagued by hazards such as a short-sighted pallbearer and a professional mourner with a fixed grin.

Billy sets off in search of a brighter, more adventurous future.

Billy is shocked to see his aunt at the cinema with married undertaker Mr Sutton, who feels left out as his wife is obsessed with playing bowls. When Mrs Sutton finds out she throws her husband out of the house and he ends up at Ivy's so in order to get the couple back together again Ivy proposes an unusual game of bowls - with Mr Sutton as the prize.

Billy reluctantly agrees to partner saucy Tiger-Lily Longstaff at a marathon dance competition in the hopes of winning prize money to buy Mary a present but lies to Mary about where he is going. She and Ivy are suspicious and eventually track him down, though Mary relents when he tells her that he has won the money.