Schoolteacher Elliot Smith is standing on the platform of an outdoor underground station late one night. He is not pleased having just wasted an evening watching a long faded band in a local pub.

A partially dressed Detective Sergeant Dagmar Johnson wakes up lying next to an unknown man in an unknown house. In an attempt to discover how she ended up there, events that follow, lead her to an encounter with an organised crime gang heavily into prostitution, money laundering, loan sharking and the supply of heroin. Dagmar Johnson is serving penance in a specialised detective unit because she has had a history with alcohol.

Edward Carter is a contract opener. He’ll open anything for the right price. He chooses his contracts carefully and he’s not too fussed who he works for as long as he gets paid. Some of London’s biggest and ruthless crime organisations approach him to get things done.