Detective Seargeant Joe Einegan discovers a motive he could never have imagined when investigating a Liverpool alleyway stabbing. Although he now lives in a penthouse overlooking the sea, he grew up in an area of two up two downs near where the murder took place.

Working with the few clues he has, he begins to ask questions about the victim's relationships with his friends. He discovers they all had motives. There's suspicion a serial killer is responsible. He's under pressure to solve the case quickly and his superiors and the local papers are pressing for justice. If he doesn't find the murderer he could lose everything – his rank, his new fashionable address and his Lotus Cortina.

Eventually the trail leads him to a bloody and horrible confrontation.