The University of Rummidge organises a conference entitled "Law for small Businesses" which is followed by a luncheon at the Grand Hotel. Jim, a law lecturer, is a speaker at the conference and the conference is attended by Albert who has just started a graphic design business and Percy a well-established market gardener.

At the conference Albert meets Barry, a fellow student from University days, whom he has not seen for some time. During lunch, while discussing pension investments, Barry tells Albert that if he (Albert) invests some money in Dunmore Limited (of which Barry is a director), he will obtain a good return on his investment. As a result of this advice, Albert subsequently purchases 20,000 £1 shares in Dunmore Limited. A few months later Dunmore Limited goes into liquidation and Albert loses his money.

After the conference Jim, returns to his office in the Law Faculty and finds a student from the Campus Law Centre waiting for him to request him to deal with a client's problem. Jim has agreed to support the students' efforts to provide free legal advice at the Centre and the problem concerns a claim by a Mrs Smith on her insurance policy. Jim speaks to Mrs Smith and advises her that she cannot claim but unfortunately he has failed to note an important change in the law six months earlier which affects her position. Some months later, Mrs Smith reads a story in the newspaper where someone has succeeded in identical circumstances to her own. However, it is now too late for her to make a claim on her policy.

Percy also returns to work after the conference, only to discover that while he was away a petrol tanker driven by George had veered across the road, hit a lamp post, rupturing the tank of petrol and flooded Percy's field with petrol. The crops in that field, which were just ready for harvesting at the time of the accident, are damaged and