When a busker is fatally stabbed in Glasgow city centre, the newly promoted DI Jackie Reid heads up the investigation. Mita Rahim joins the Maryhill CID team properly while DI Ross suffers a personal heartache.

After the badly beaten body of a man is found dumped on a motorway underpass, his murder is linked to a Fight Club style bare-knuckle boxing venue. Both professional and personal lives collide at Maryhill CID, with one of the detectives having to come face to face with their own demons.

When the team are called to a flat, they discover three children all dead with a fourth named Callum fighting for his life, DI Ross then discovers the dead body of the children's father Pete in the bathroom, he therefore becomes the prime suspect but then when forensic tests reveal that Pete died before his own children. The real culprit is still at large and shocks all of the team.

When an Iranian refugee is found burnt to death, it appears at first to be a racially motivated crime. It soon becomes clear to DCI Burke and the rest of the team that there is another motive and when a drug dealer enters the frame, the case is set to be extremely complex for all concerned. First appearance of the supporting character, DC Mita Rahim.

When union leader for shipworkers Will Ramsey is shot dead it looks to be an open and shut case that it is a corporate killing, but the real motivation and implications lay closer to home.

Newly qualified doctor Scott Clarkson is found tortured and murdered in an empty warehouse. Two London detectives, Moretti and Casey,the latter an old friend of Burke,arrive in Glasgow whilst investigating a similar case though Jackie and Robbie do not warm to them. Scott's girlfriend Lucy,another medic,is arrested for manufacturing recreational drugs and admits that Scott also made and sold Ecstasy to pay his student fees. Lucy is arrested and commits suicide in custody after a visit from the London policemen. Were Jackie and Robbie right to be suspicious of the visitors motives?

Edward Muir and his son Luke,members of the austere Triune Family religious group,are brutally murdered with open bibles by the corpses,referring to the Rapture or promise of eternal life. Karen,the young daughter of Jackie's friend Eileen,is also murdered and a bible found by her body. Karen's lap-top shows that she was dating Luke Muir,against his religion's rules. The group leader's family come under suspicion when his wife and younger son reveal they want to leave the Triune Family as Luke did and the other son puts up opposition to their wishes.

A body is found hanging from the swing frame in the playground on the recently rejuvenated Allerdykes Estate by a local 'Community Watch' member doing his early morning check.

Bank clerk Craig Williams is murdered at the dog-track,where,for a change,he would have won – forty five grand. Evidence suggests that the race was fixed and the favourite dog nobbled. Had Craig lived he would have claimed his winnings from bookie Niall McShane and his violent son Ged,who threatens the trainer. But then Ged McShane is killed in the same way as Craig. An ex-wife who stood to gain from Craig's life insurance and a married colleague with whom he had a fling while her husband was abroad are now in the frame alongside the bookie and the trainer.