As the third series begins, Lovejoy returns to Felsham after a long break in Spain, where he was trying (without marked success) to learn to paint. He quickly seeks out Tinker (who has joined a monastery), Jane, who has a new look, and Eric, now working as a security guard. Victoria Cavero, an old friend of Jane's, comes to stay, and Lovejoy loses no time in falling for her. Victoria wants to sell a South American gold ring, and the ring sets in motion strange events for Lovejoy and Jane, including safecracking, kidnapping, polo and betrayal.

Lovejoy is spending more and more time with Victoria, not so much on his business. Together with Jane and Alexander, he and Victoria go away for the weekend at a friend's cottage. Meanwhile, Lovejoy buys some drawings for a song and sells them to an art gallery for a good profit. He is shaken when the pictures are denounced as fakes - even the artist says they are not his, but Lovejoy is sure they are. What is going on?

A band called The Hothouse Flowers is due to appear at a local charity gig, and their manager is an old friend of Tinker's. Before going away with Victoria on a little trip, Lovejoy gets Jane to agree to take in the Flowers. Then, though, the organizer of the planned gig runs off with the money. One of the band decides to sell his valuable antique harp to make good some of the shortfall, but before Lovejoy can arrrange the sale the harp also disappears.Lovejoy works his way up to proposing to Victoria, but she turns him down and goes back to South America.

Lovejoy gets dragged into a sinister plot concerning Mussolini's nose and the burial at sea of Captain Bucknall (Jane's old house-keeper's brother). He is given the job of selling the late Captain's medals, and there is a smart fashion photographer who wants them, but then some drunken sailors come into the picture and he has to deal with the gun-toting Angelo Pantaloni...

Greg Veitch is on a visit from Australia, looking for antiques, but especially what he calls 'my Eureka' - the thing he must have. At Sir Max Spence's house, Greg sees a magnificent bronze from Benin, in Africa, and wants it, but he can't get an export license. Then the bronze goes missing, and Lovejoy comes under suspicion - so he feels he must get to the bottom of what's going on.

Lovejoy is asked to value an ancient Chinese terra-cotta figure of a pig. Then he falls off a bicycle and breaks his leg, landing him in hospital. The pig's owners, curiously, are doing their best to have it under-valued. Meanwhile, Eric needs to sell his ancient motorbike and comes up with the story that it once belonged to Lawrence of Arabia. And pigs might fly...

Vicky finds an old claymore (a Scottish sword) in her attic. Lovejoy buys it at auction and is offered much more than it's worth for it. Puzzled, he investigates and finds the claymore is a map to buried treasure. Someone tries to steal it, so Lovejoy is not the only one hot on the trail. But the treasure is elusive - a supermarket has been built on top of it.

Jane decides to sell an Anatolian rug. When it comes up for auction, an old lady at the sale, Harriet Fisher, buys a Berber rug for her dog, but a young Arab who also wanted it promptly steals it from Harriet. Lovejoy is curious and decides to investigate... Meanwhile, Alexander and Jane are quarrelling badly, and they decide to split up.

The Reverend Harry Nettles claims there is a mosaic floor belonging to a Roman villa in the field next to his church, which is about to be built on. Nobody believes him, and the county archaeologist has agreed to the plans, so Lovejoy races to thwart the developer. He also has a dance with Jane, newly separated from Alexander...

Lovejoy's daughter Vicky disappears, then announces she is living with an older man whose wife has died. Susan, Vicky's mother, does not approve. When Lovejoy investigates, he finds that Vicky's boyfriend is not a widower at all. Meanwhile, Lovejoy is also busy uncovering a fake art scam being run by the son of a cabinet minister...

Mr Kashimoto is trying without success to join an exclusive local golf club. The club asks Lovejoy to value its finest silver trophy, but he recognizes it as a fake. Eric then accidentally shoots a hole in Lovejoy's ceiling, and in the loft above a very similar trophy is discovered... Lovejoy sets out to solve the mystery.

Some old sketches put Lovejoy and Jane on a trail which takes them up to Scotland, where they uncover a plot by another antiques dealer to con one of Jane's friends. At home, Eric is involved with a young woman with some unsavory relations, but she also has an antique mirror to sell. Lovejoy and Jane are moving closer to romance... but who is the girl Lovejoy keeps seeing in the woods?

Some old sketches put Lovejoy and Jane on a trail which takes them up to Scotland, where they uncover a plot by another antiques dealer to con one of Jane's friends. At home, Eric is involved with a young woman with some unsavory relations, but she also has an antique mirror to sell. Lovejoy and Jane are moving closer to romance... but who is the girl Lovejoy keeps seeing in the woods?

Lovejoy is likely to be on his own for Christmas. However, a violent attack on an old Czech fighter pilot leads Lovejoy and Eric to Prague on a treasure hunt. Jane, who was on holiday with friends in Austria, joins Lovejoy in Prague to help solve a mystery of missing diamonds.Tinker is left to mind the shop and make preparations for Christmas.

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.

In Venice, Lovejoy gets a job working for Caterina and Lavinia, with a view to busting their scam, and meets a Scottish forger called 'Lucky' Luciano. Lovejoy and Lucky together unravel the mystery of the Island of Rats.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lovejoy makes an exhibition of his 'sixth sense' for antiques on a television programme. Later, working on a house clearance, he overlooks an important item and starts to think he may be abusing and losing his talent. After he gets a letter, Lovejoy goes to see another 'divvie' who has lost the magic touch.

Lovejoy travels to Venice to investigate the murder of a friend. The dead friend had bought a painting Lovejoy believed was a fake. In Venice, he is drawn into an ambitious art swindle, and identical twins Caterina and Lavinia are behind the scam.

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.

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.

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...