Two friends join the Army and are sent to serve in Afghanistan, where Peter struggles with the pressure and fails to return fire during a battle with the Taliban which leaves the lives of his fellow soldiers in danger. His lance corporal begins to victimise him after seeing what happened and the bullying becomes worse when the young man's friend Frankie is ordered to humiliate him. The following chain of events ends up with a court case.

Liam works as a taxi driver but his gambling has become a way of escaping the limitations and stresses of marriage and his every day life. When he drives Emma Croft to the airport he becomes smitten with her and gives her his card telling her to contact him sometime. Liam is broke and needs to get his daughter a present who has just got into a good school to do her A-levels. He ends up breaking into Emma's flat and steals her laptop and a necklace, which he gives to his daughter. After Emma finds out about the burglary at her flat Liam attempts to make himself indispensable to her. Liam's fixation with her becomes more and more obsessive and he invents a whole new past for himself, which Emma believes. Liam convinces her to break up with her boyfriend but a tragedy soon occurs which sees Liam in the dock.