With female QCs (Queen's Counsel) or 'silks' in a tiny minority, barrister Martha Costello, of the Shoe Lane Chambers, is anxious to join that elite number by progressing through the courts. Following a successful acquittal in a murder trial she is given two cases to defend at short notice. Mercedes Cordoba, a pregnant drugs mule. The other is Gary Rush, charged with robbing and assaulting elderly war hero Michael Dodd.

Martha defends homeless teen-aged "rent boy" Mark Draper,charged with indecency in a public lavatory. Niamh and Nick separately represent a warring couple charged with owning dangerous dogs. Nick wins his case by chance while the more competent Niamh loses. She gets the next brief but Nick has to represent the third defendant in the indecency charge when his barrister falls ill.