Mrs. Aylwood is a distraught mother since her daughter, Karen, vanished in the Welsh countryside 30 years ago. When the Carstairs family move into the Aylwood manor for the summer., strange occurrences begin to unnerve the family and Jan begins to suspect that they are linked to Karen's disappearance. As Jan unravels the dark past hidden by the townspeople, she delves further into the mystery and deeper into danger, but now it might be too late to escape the Watcher in the Woods.

A country manor mystery that's actually a deliciously wicked comedy of manners, The Hippopotamus is a rollicking adaptation of the best-selling novel by Stephen Fry. It centers on a lapsed poet, failed drama critic, redundant husband and hard-working drunk, Ted Wallace (the mellifluously voiced Roger Allam in a rare starring role). Fired from his newspaper job, Ted leaps at the chance to drown his sorrows at his old friend's country estate, Swafford Hall. A series of spiritual healings have recently put the household in a tizzy. The purported miracle worker is his hosts' teenage son, Ted's godson, David (Tommy Knight). Lord and Lady Logan are set on sharing their boy's "gift" with the world, blissfully unaware that his "laying on of hands" trick involves, well, an emphasis on "laying." At odds with a colorful party of fellow guests only too ready to swallow anything they're told, Ted sets out to prove the miracles are a hoax and save the young man from a lifetime of embarrassment.

Jack Parsons grew up in poverty while suffering through childhood at the hands of an abusive, alcoholic father. Jack's brother-like bond with his wealthy neighbor Freddy, and his secret love for Anne the neighborhood beauty, were all that made life tolerable. Now at college, Jack attacks life with a vengeance. Fuelled by narcotics, alcohol, and a "can't lose philosophy", he runs with the popular crowd, pledges the school's most exclusive fraternity, and continues to pine for Anne even though he knows Freddy loves her. The drugs, booze and death defying initiation process cannot stop Jack, but a series of devastating blackouts that force him to question reality stagger Jack like a backhand smack from his old man and threaten to end his perfect life.