Des and Jim suspect that their local councilor Mr Horsley is really a replicant created by the evil Xux.

Des and Jim fear that the Xux are going to inflict spoon-bending mental powers on humanity in order to create chaos.

Miss Griffin has not been in the shop for a few days. Des has a home-medicine induced vision of his alien friends telling him that she has disappeared on her last mission. All evidence points to the local park.

Des has a nightmare of humanoid replicas of Mr Horsley emerging from the burning council building. At the same time Mr Horsley's nephew is creating a new line of shop dummies.