The year is 1968, Detective Inspector Gil Messenger of the Notts CID is not happy. In his mind he has allowed Nottingham's number one gangster to walk free from a murder charge. Deciding to conduct some out of hours enquiries in order to right the wrong, he is caught up in a web of force politics, discriminatory practices and poor police investigation techniques and finds himself in custody charged with murder. The action takes place before DNA, CCTV, and mobile phones were available as an aid to investigation and success depends on searching out reliable witnesses, disseminating the evidence and discarding all that becomes irrelevant. His main adversary is his own senior officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Adrian (Adolf) Itles and his freedom depends on the skills of his friends in the CID to uncover the real culprit: Or do they?