It is an extremely worrying time for fans of the Pilgrims, who were flying high in the Championship just two seasons ago, and were candidates to be a home venue if England won the rights to be World Cup hosts.
Now they have slipped to the bottom of the table, following the mandatory 10-point reduction for entering administration. Staff, including the players, reportedly haven't been paid for six weeks and relegation to League Two looms.
Argyle's administrators want a buyer in place by March 17 in a bid to save the club, and help to pay the £300,000 owed to HMRC to stave off a winding-up order - just a month after clearing a £760,000 tax debt. Total debts are said to be at a staggering £10 million.
But it begs the question as to how they, and other clubs in the past, get into such dire straits.
Many clubs have faced financial troubles in the past, particularly in recent seasons. Chester City went out of existence, and that fate very nearly befell the likes of Notts County, Portsmouth and Bournemouth.
The Magpies' situation was particularly curious. Taken over by mystery consortium Munto Finance, fans were promised millions of pounds in investment, and Premiership football at Meadow Lane. Former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson was appointed director of football, and Three Lions defender Sol Campbell was the showpiece signing.
But nobody knew who Munto was, and the Football League rightly questioned this resulting in weeks of speculation before the faceless benefactors pulled out of the club. It was later revealed they put absolutely nothing into it, but left it with £7 million of debt.
Notts faced HMRC hearings of their own, and were set for administration until businessman Ray Trew saved them. He has reduced the staggering debt to just £500,000 and hopes to be debt-free by the end of the season. Remarkably the Magpies still won the League Two title last year.
Despite not knowing who the owners of County were, they were still able to take over and do the damage, and actually - eventually - passed the Football League's much maligned Fit and Proper Persons Test.
Argyle's current board will no doubt have passed the same test. Yet somehow they have allowed the club into a perilous situation, clearly not heeding the lessons from other clubs.
They have two Japanese-based directors, who have gone awfully quiet. They joined the club with a lot of fanfare, promising this and that, and no doubt made fans believe that Premiership football was on the horizon - not League Two.
Peter Ridsdale, who was acting as an advisor at the club, recently resigned after becoming frustrated at Yasuaki Kagami and George Synan and their broken promises. The fans may know their names, and probably what they look like. But they have become faceless. They don't visit Home Park, they haven't lived up to what they said they would do and they have contributed - not wholly - to the club being in a diabolical position.
A huge £5 million is needed for the club to see the season out. They have already sold their best players such as Bradley Wright-Phillips - and he is no Fernando Torres, no £50 million man.
The Japanese directors should be summoned before the fans to explain why the club is in its current position, and explain how they can get out of it. They should be unmasked in front of supporters who face weeks of worrying. They should be getting behind their team's fight to avoid the drop, but only surviving as a club now matters. They will probably stay in Tokyo with enjoying their sushi.
After rising from the bottom of the league ladder to English football's second tier in the early noughties with two promotions in three seasons, Argyle should be much-vaunted. Those behind that rise will probably join fans in demanding answers.
It is time the Football League ensured a more rigorous process when allowing new directors, buyers and owners into clubs, before more fall the way of Argyle.
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