At the beginning of series 2, Lovejoy has just come out of prison after serving a sentence for theft. He believes he was set up and returns to Suffolk hoping to find the villain and get even.

A mean landowner is reluctant to share an inheritance with his hard-up brother, who is a friend of Jane's. Then Lovejoy intervenes, as a favour to Jane, with a cunning plan which depends on a fake statue.

Lovejoy values the house contents of an elderly widow, an old friend of Jane's, who is burgled soon afterwards. Finding he is the local police's prime suspect, Lovejoy decides to work out for himself (with the help of Brian Nunn, a remarkable bin man) who was behind the burglary. Matters are complicated by Eric's 'bin diving' habit.

The manager of a heavy rock band wants to sell an ancient pre-Columbian solid gold statue, and it brings Inca black magic into East Anglia - including two murders. Lovejoy takes on the task of solving the mystery.

Lovejoy and Jane have the job of fitting out a smart new restaurant being opened by Major Linden Walker, an old army friend of Tinker's. With the help of a former prison officer (one he knew on the inside) Lovejoy delivers the goods, only to find he has been gulled. Linden and Tinker's cabaret act Crime and Punishment makes its first and last appearance.

Ashley Wilkes travels around East Anglia painting charming pictures of country cottages and seducing their female inhabitants. An army officer hires Lovejoy to find Wilkes, on the pretext of having a commission for him, but Lovejoy smells a rat. When he finally catches up with the elusive painter, it appears that Wilkes has a terrible secret.

Tinker is thrilled when Madeline Gilbert, a retired film star, sends for the Lovejoy team, as he has an old crush on her. Madeline wants to sell some of her antiques and gives Lovejoy the job of arranging an auction, but before the big day can arrive there is a robbery at the house - one bearing a striking resemblance to a number of other country house raids in England and France. An international gang seems to be at work.

Lovejoy is in hot water for not paying the school fees of his teenage daughter, Vicky. Meanwhile (and much to Eric's disgust) another schoolgirl asks the firm to sell some erotic drawings for her. When Lovejoy sees the same girl being threatened by a man at the school, he decides there's more to the story than meets the eye. He also manages to vex Susan, his former wife, as they try to cope with their daughter's problems.

Jane's husband, Alexander, has a new business partner called Joe Gruder, but Lovejoy is suspicious of him. Jane gets a call from Lily Gruder, Joe's wife, who has a problem with some pearls and a pawnbroker, and Lovejoy decides to look into Joe's affairs. Mr Gruder does not come up smelling of roses.

Dealer Harry Catapodis has sold some fakes to Cassandra Lynch, a beautiful American widow Lovejoy knows. Caught out, Harry offers to buy the things back from Cassandra, but he admits he will then sell them on to someone else. With a Japanese business man and others, Lovejoy aims to get back at Harry - and to make some money and seduce Cassandra at the same time.

Dealer Harry Catapodis has sold some fakes to Cassandra Lynch, a beautiful American widow Lovejoy knows. Caught out, Harry offers to buy the things back from Cassandra, but he admits he will then sell them on to someone else. With a Japanese business man and others, Lovejoy aims to get back at Harry - and to make some money and seduce Cassandra at the same time.

Lovejoy buys a set of James Gillray drawings, which turn out to be copies. While trying to sell them, Eric finds a stolen statue with an aristocratic connection at the house of some friends of Jane's. Then there's a Royal Visit to consider...

Jane's old dance teacher wants Lovejoy to sell a mirror. This then leads to a deal which involves the apparently one-eyed Roderick Frew. Jane informs Lovejoy that Alexander is broke, Felsham is in the hands of the receivers, and she is leaving.

Lovejoy has been left to look after Felsham Hall until it has been sold, and he uses the house as a furniture showroom. He thus crosses swords with the beautiful Charlotte Cavendish, who is the auctioneer selling the Hall. At the auction, Charlie Gimbert buys the property, and Lovejoy agrees with him to rent the stables for Lovejoy Antiques.

Lovejoy is threatened by a debt collector and hijacks a country house auction to pay his debts. In the process, he finds the lost 'Kakiemon Tiger', but he has to deal with competitors for it. Beth Taylor joins Lovejoy Antiques on a youth employment scheme, to learn the business.

Charlotte's former lover arrives from New York and invites her to live with him in Paris, but she turns him down.A forger cons Charlie Gimbert into buying some fake porcelain, but Lovejoy catches up with him. In doing so, he discovers a good artist.

Tinker and Eric take a break at Eric's Uncle Jack's pub. Meanwhile, Lovejoy is asked to show a visiting couple around the antiques shops. Trouble is, he also has a very large Welsh Dresser to get rid of. Eric decides to stay on and run the pub.

A rare Celtic cross is stolen from Charlotte's aution house, after Lovejoy asked the porter to let a friend look at it. Charlotte and Lovejoy set out on the thief's trail and find themselves on a treasure hunt in the west of Wales. But they are not the only ones after the cross.Charlotte turns down Lovejoy's invitation to share a bedroom at a village inn.

A friend of Charlotte's who runs a nursing home has asked her to sell some things, and Charlotte wants Lovejoy's help with valuations. One patient, Virginia, believes she has a very rare bureau. Then somebody tries to kill Lovejoy. When Charlotte recognizes his resemblance to a dead poet, they begin to suspect who might be behind the attempts on his life. Tinker and Beth are sent off to London in search of the answers.

Charlie Gimbert asks Lovejoy to value a colonial widow's Chinese treasures. Lovejoy is interested in an unusual Peking cannon and gets Charlotte's opinion on it. The cannon has great significance for a Chinese tong, and Lovejoy and Charlotte are in danger as the Chinese community prepares to do battle over it.

After a dealer apparently disappears over the side of a cross-channel ferry, Lovejoy acquires two china geese. Charlie Gimbert, in pursuit of local ambitions, decides to impress the community and asks Charlotte to act as hostess at a Dog Show and Wildlife Auction at Felsham Hall. Lovejoy organises the auction, including his geese - and Charlotte invites him home for a dinner for two.

Boswell, a friend of Lovejoy's who runs a travelling fair, asks Lovejoy to sell some silver candlesticks for him. However, the police arrive, saying they are stolen property, and Boswell is arrested. Meanwhile, an American friend of Charlotte's wants to buy the fairground Carousel.

Lovejoy takes Charlotte to an Antiques Fair at Cambridge, where the elderly Doncaster sisters, who have financial problems, invite him to value their belongings. Lovejoy finds what seems to be a very rare bible, but the sisters' brother, a Cambridge don, opposes its sale. Lovejoy then discovers the bible is a fake and suspects mischief. Meanwhile, Beth's father wants her to leave Lovejoy Antiques for something better.

Lovejoy is invited to spend the weekend with Charlotte at her best friend's house. The friend is short of money and has a clock she wants valued, but Lovejoy finds a stuffed fish which is worth selling, and misunderstandings arise... Meanwhile, Tinker is keen to thwart Charlie Gimbert's plans to turn Felsham Hall into a health farm, and after studying a twelfth-century charter he starts grazing a flock of sheep around the Hall. Charlie responds by threatening to evict Lovejoy Antiques from the stable yard, so Tinker and Beth take a trip to a health farm.

Lovejoy meets distant cousins from America, who are visiting England. As well as a female ghost, old Lord Wakering has treasures which once belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh, and both Lovejoy and Mary-John Lovejoy, his American cousin, want them. Some of Lord Wakering's things are stolen, and Lovejoy travels in hot pursuit to the Carolinas, where he is not made welcome. Charlotte has to fly over to get him out of trouble.