Aunt Dahlia sends Bertie to sneer at an 18th century cow creamer in order to reduce the price for Uncle Tom. But when he makes a mess of the job rival silver collector Sir Watkin Bassett gets hold of it. So Bertie goes off to Totleigh Towers where everyone either wants Bertie to steal the cow creamer, or threatens to beat him to a jelly if he does. Stiffy Byng, Stinker Pinker, and Aunt Dahlia being of the former category, and the amateur dictator Roderick Spode and Sir Watkin Bassett being of the latter.