After narrowly avoiding being shot during a case, a fortune cookie has convinced Thomas that it's time to repay his friends and associates. As a favour to Higgins in one such payback, he heads to collect a crate of books from the docks, only to find that the crate contains a Japanese stowaway, and promptly upon the discovery he his is attacked by two goons. The stowaway woman is the daughter of an old war comrade of Higgins, who claims to have hidden in the crate to escape from her father in Japan, whom she claims is nowadays a cruel man. Although finding it hard to believe that his old acquaintance has now turned so cruel, Higgins feels obliged to help the girl, who is searching for her American fiancée. Magnum however, is more sceptical, but investigates for himself in case Higgins is becoming entangled in some sort of trap...

Higgins persuades Magnum to help Garwood Huddle, a member of a notorious group of 1940s bank robbers, whom Higgins feels indebted to after Huddle had once assisted him in a daring MI6 assignment. The man, who has always seen himself as a modern day Robin Hood, has escaped from prison to rescue his kidnapped grandson, but they find that the stash of years-old stolen money that Garwood is to pay the ransom with is gone...