Written by Alan Plater, the plot concerns the disappearance of the husband of Leeds schoolteacher Judy Threadgold (Bridget Turner).

Investigating the disappearance, with the aid of her colleague, woodwork teacher Neville Keaton (Alun Armstrong), Judy learns of the existence of a secret organisation that helps disaffected people leave their unhappy lives behind.

Judy and Neville soon discover the existence of a secret organisation dedicated to assisting people who want to escape the mundanity of their lives and families and just disappear.

Although Judy eventually finds her missing husband, she is none too enthusiastic about taking him back and allows him to seek a new life running a fish and chip shop.

Using characters inspired by Nick and Nora Charles, the detectives in the film The Thin Man (1934) and its sequels, Plater sought to juxtapose the conventions of the hardboiled thriller, as expounded by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, with the mundanity of life in Yorkshire.

Cast as Neville Keaton was Alun Armstrong who, at the time, had worked with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company and would later go on to enjoy a varied television career with roles in such programmes as Our Friends in the North (1996), This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper (2000) and New Tricks (2003–2013).