The officers of a small, country Police station investigate a murder that might be two murders, face a riot, pursue a sex offender and suppress evidence of drug smuggling involving old friends. By turns cynical and idealistic they go about their business in an all-too-human way.
At Gapley nuclear power station the quiet of the night shift is disrupted by emergency alarm sirens. Next day a beach fisherman brings ashore a floating corpse. Sergeant Miller is more concerned with his unrequited passion for newly arrived Constable Muriel Larkspur than with Inspector Gibbon's insistence the body from the sea is suspicious, Meanwhile in the CID office Detective Sergeant Dutton is preoccupied by the imminent arrival of management consultants from Force Headquarters. The last thing anyone wants to disturb their routine is grave robbers and journalists.