The episode opens with a heavily drugged No. 6 being duped into revealing some of his secrets to a former colleague, Dutton, who seems to have endured a considerable amount of brainwashing himself. However, even drugged, No 6 fights the attempt and No.2 stops the experiment for fear of permanent brain damage. No.6 wakes up in his cottage, apparently unaware of the previous night's ordeal, and receives an invitation to the village carnival.
 The following night, after hearing No 2's "soothing" sleep message, he manages to get out and reaches the beach where he discovers a dead man washed up on the shore. He finds a wallet and a small radio on the body. Hiding the body in a nearby cave he returns to the Village and later, on the lookout point while trying to listen to the radio, No.2 and No.6's observer appear and confiscate it. Apparently he's transgressed some serious, though unwritten, rule. Back in the cave, No.6 writes a message which he puts into the dead man's wallet and puts him back in the sea, attached to a lifebelt. He is watched by Dutton, who reveals that his death is scheduled by the village authorities.
 At the village carnival, people are all in fancy dress, only No.6 wears a black tuxedo. After some verbal fencing with No. 2 he leaves the ballroom and takes a white coat, pretending to be one of the medical staff and bumps into a female doctor. She has a termination order for "Roland Walter Dutton" which No. 6 persuades her to give to him. Looking around, No.6 eventually enters the mortuary and inside one of the drawers is the man he found on the beach. No.2 comes in and explains that the body will be "altered" and dumped at sea with the prisoner's papers in his jacket. The outside world will then take him for dead.
Taken back to the ballroom, No.6 finds himself on trial for "crimes against the community", and charged with the possession of a radio. Everyone is, oddly, still in fancy dress with Number 2 as Peter Pan and Norma West's character as Little Bo Peep. No. 6 calls for a character witness, his old friend Dutton, but it's too late, Dutton has by now been reduced to a human vegetable.
No. 6 is sentenced to death and runs out, with the crowd baying at his heels. He manages to give them the slip and ends up in a room containing a teletext machine which seems to have been the main means of communication between the Village and Number One. As he rips out the wiring to disable the machine, No.2 enters and watches with amusement. She instructs the Observer to clear the crowd, the death sentence seemingly forgotten. No 6 warns of his continuing defiance and No 2 smirks "Then how very uncomfortable for YOU ... old chap!" As her mocking laughter echoes around the room, the teletext machine bursts back to life.
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Anthony Skene (Writer)
Mary Morris (Number Two)
Duncan MacRae (Doctor)
Norma West (Observer)
Bee Duffell (Psychiatrist)
Alan White (Dutton)
Aubrey Morris (Town Crier)
Camilla Hasse (Supervisor)
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Don Chaffey (Director)
Michael Nightingale (Night Supvsr)
Patsy Smart (Night Maid)
Denise Buckley (Maid)
George Merritt (Postman)
John Frawley (Flower Man)
Lucy Griffiths (Lady in Corridor)
William Lyon Brown (Doctor)
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Trivia:
Originally planned as the second episode, hence dialogue such as "I'm new here" and, when asked when he was abducted, Number Six's reply "Quite recently". This episode was one of the original four to be filmed and was made back-to-back with "Checkmate" with lots of actual Portmeirion location footage. Mary Morris's role was originally written as a man, hence the sometimes "masculine" dialogue, and it is rumoured that Trevor Howard was going to play it, with his fancy dress as Old Father Time. Mary Morris recalled that the costumes provided seemed to be "any old thing" and that they were badly in need of cleaning.
Aubrey Morris who plays the "Town Crier" is a familiar character actor with lots of film and television credits. He worked with PMG in later years and can be seen in the Columbo episode "Ashes To Ashes".  The photograph which Number Six finds on the drowned man's body is of a young couple sitting in Portmeirion's central square, the pool clearly visible behind them.
The almost deified teletext machine is a little odd, given that the Village has far more sophisticated communications devices at it's disposal. One suspects it's only use was as a dramatic device, rather than an actual method of communication.
The episode is heavily influenced by Cocteau and Kafka and the chase under the Town Hall is lifted almost exactly from Orson Well's film of Kafka's "The Trial" as "Joseph K" is pursued through underground tunnels by a mob. This film also provided the inspiration for the row-of-filing-cabinets visual in The Prisoner's opening sequence.
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