Patrick Petrella is now installed behind a new desk, as superintendent of an East London dockland area. Though this marks a well-merited step up the career ladder, the paperwork of modern policing, involving as it does on any one day questions of race relations, allegations of police brutality, press harassment or the legacy of bent coppers, makes Petrella itch to out on the streets again. There is also the matter of the nasty taste left by the manner of his predecessor's departure. Petrella detects patterns of rival gangs at work, and uncovers a child pornography ring which stretches across the North Sea to Amsterdam's sleazier side. Soon he finds himself up against one of the most unscrupulous outfits in London and it doesn't take him long before he figures out which course of action he must take.