When a bi-polar man living in a camper van is found beaten nearly to death with an iron bar at the centre of a well kept square, DS Brooks, DS Devlin, and DI Chandler investigate. As the cops dig deeper, they discover that Kirk tormented the residents to the extent that they were desperate to get rid of him. Everyone has a motive but no-one is talking. James Steel is determined to prove that this was a premeditated attack but Alesha Phillips and George Castle know that the jury's sympathy will lie with the law abiding perpetrator as opposed to the antisocial victim who refuses to take his medication.

When DS Brooks and DS Devlin are called to the death of a drug mule, they are surprised to discover she is a middle class white girl, Debbie Powell. She was about to go to university, she worked hard, and she wanted for nothing. So why did she do it? Debbie's death hits home for George Castle, and he pressures James and Alesha to bring all charges possible against the defendant. Not an easy case given that are no witnesses, all the evidence is circumstantial, and James' opponent is the brilliant but eccentric Jason Peters.