When Dabbie MacDuff is asked to look into the theft of sheep from farms around the village of Aberscotty where he lives, he has no idea what he is letting himself in for. The sheep stealing turns out to be an activity of industrial proportions covering large areas of Scotland and involving literally thousands of animals. His adventures take him to the Isle of Man where he comes face to face with Borni, the mad one-eyed pie-maker, who, in addition to stealing sheep, has ambitions to rule the world, or at least a part of it. In his pursuit of Borni, Dabbie travels in a little trailer, sharing it with ten stinky sheep; he stows away on a sheep transporter on a ferry and he rides on the Isle of Man TT Circuit at high speed on the sidecar of a racing motorcycle combination.