At Home in Mitford

During a Sunday service, Father Tim notices a new woman in the congregation and thinks she would be a perfect match for the widowed Dr. Hoppy Harper, though he resolves not to meddle. His secretary, Emma, sees the same woman and declares her own intention to play matchmaker. 

Father Tim accompanies Dooley to his first day of school, which ends with Dooley getting into a fight and receiving a black eye. Later, the local antique dealer, Andrew Gregory, agrees to frame Uncle Billy’s drawings and suggests hosting a public art show at his shop. 

Father Tim takes Dooley for an overnight visit to Meadowgate Farm to meet Hal and Marge Owen. Hal offers to let Dooley ride their bay mare, Goosedown Owen, but during the ride, Goosedown throws Dooley onto fresh slop. Though angered, Dooley is determined to ride the horse again until he can master it.

That evening, during the truck ride to an emergency farm call to oversee a calving, Father Tim asks Hal to serve on the building committee for the new nursing home. On the drive home, Hal agrees to pray about it. 

The following Sunday, the new parishioner introduces herself as Olivia Davenport and requests a meeting with Father Tim.

Harold Newland, the local postman, formally asks Father Tim for permission to marry Emma. In a separate meeting, Olivia Davenport reveals to Father Tim that she is terminally ill and wants to find meaningful work; he suggests that she read scripture to patients at the hospital. Concerned about making Hoppy a widower twice over, Father Tim warns Emma that trying to match Hoppy with Olivia would be unwise. Finally, Father Tim has his first encounter with his new next-door neighbor, a children’s book author named Cynthia Coppersmith, after his dog Barnabas chases her cat, Violet, up a tree. 

After Dooley gets into another serious fight at school, chasing a boy with a baseball bat, Father Tim makes a deal with him: He will curb his aggression in exchange for monthly trips to Meadowgate Farm to ride the horse. 

Mayor Cunningham announces a town Festival of Roses. He enlists Father Tim to give a speech and persuade Miss Sadie to include her home on a tour as part of the festivities. When they meet later on, Miss Sadie tells Father Tim that she would like to one day tell him her long-held secret about her youthful romance with Willard Porter, which she suggests will help explain a terrible fire that happened years earlier.

A series of minor thefts begins at the church when Father Tim’s lunch and a bottle of sacramental wine vanish from the parish hall refrigerator. 

Emma, having spoken to Cynthia directly, informs Father Tim that their new neighbor is the successful author of the Violet the Cat children’s book series. She was previously married to a senator and was gifted her house at Mitford by the daughter of an uncle who favored Cynthia.

The art show for Uncle Billy’s drawings is held at Andrew Gregory’s antique shop and proves to be a great success, with many works sold. At the show, Hoppy tells Father Tim that seeing Olivia reading Psalms to Pearly McGee has moved him deeply. He admits that he has been angry with God and has been away from church for a long time but hints that Olivia may reopen his heart to faith again. 

In Andrew’s office, Father Tim notices a newspaper clipping about a recent jewel theft from a museum. The thefts at the parish hall continue when a prized orange marmalade cake disappears from the refrigerator. 

Later, Father Tim has a pleasant, if imperfect, dinner at Cynthia’s home after she burns the roast and he helps salvage the meal.

On Thanksgiving morning, Father Tim visits a man named “Homeless” Hobbes alongside representatives of every church denomination in town. Hobbes is a former advertising executive who now lives a life of contentment and simplicity in a small shack. 

Later, while cleaning a closet at Lord’s Chapel, Father Tim discovers that a funeral urn from the church’s columbarium contains pouches of cut jewels instead of ashes. Worried that a police investigation would disrupt the church’s busy Christmas season, Father Tim puts the urn back, resolving to report the jewels after the holidays. Shortly thereafter, he counsels a distraught stranger who enters the church in the midst of a spiritual crisis. He advises the man to recognize God’s constant presence in their lives and urges him to ask for God’s forgiveness for his guilt. 

As Christmas approaches, Russell Jacks is hospitalized with severe pneumonia, and Dooley comes to stay at the rectory. On Christmas morning, Father Tim surprises Dooley with the red bicycle he has been longing and working hard for.

On Christmas Day, Dooley disappears from the rectory on his new red bicycle. He returns with a welt on his face, stating that his mother, whom he had run away to find, had rejected him and told him to go back. Father Tim tells Puny that Dooley’s mother has alcoholism and abandoned all her children. This moves Puny so much that she’s compelled to hug Dooley.

After the holidays, Father Tim brings Police Chief Rodney Underwood to the church to show him the hidden jewels. However, when they open Parrish Guthrie’s funeral urn, they find that it’s empty. Rodney notes that Father Tim had technically been in possession of stolen goods when he first found the jewels and failed to report them, but since the jewels are now gone, there’s nothing to charge him with; he agrees to file a quiet, internal report. 

Later, Father Tim tells Hoppy the truth about Olivia’s health: She’s dying from viral myocarditis, a terminal heart condition. Hoppy is devastated, especially upon learning that Olivia’s rare blood type makes her chances of receiving a life-saving heart transplant extremely low.