The Outsider is a 6-part series about a London-based journalist, Frank Scully, visiting Yorkshire. Frank arrives in Wrathdale expecting to visit his friend Donald Harper for a few days en route to Scotland, where Frank plans to finally write his novel. But when the death of the Mickelthorpe Messenger's fire-and-brimstone editor leaves its new owner (his spinster sister Sybil Banner) in a lurch, Donald persuades Frank to stay on as temporary editor. Though initially reluctant, Frank is soon drawn into Wrathdale life, including the charms of the Messenger's printing press owner, Fiona Lytton Neave. But is Miss Banner just using Frank's "outsider" status to further a sinister agenda through the newspaper?