As rival drug gangs battle for supremacy on their patch, Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Harpur and Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles struggle to win some kind of truce - or at least to limit the brutality. Easier said than done - Harpur does his best, while fending off the meddlesome and unprincipled Iles and dealing with would-be bigshot 'Panicking' Ralph Ember, who has decided to take the law - or rather his interpretation of it- into his own hands.