When a dead man is found in a Soho strip club, it looks like a sex game has gone wrong. So when the deceased is discovered to be a police officer, Gene and Alex are ordered to keep the case under wraps.

The team is on the hunt for major vehicle thief Jed Wicklow, but when a car chase leads to his death, Gene stands accused of causing it through reckless driving.

Alex is adamant that there was something wrong with Jed at the wheel and wants to prove that the crash wasn't Gene's fault. The deceased Jed was a Romany gypsy, and hostilities run high on the camp as CID heavy-handedly try to uncover the circumstances of his death. But in an investigation that's already met with resistance, someone in the police force also appears to be standing in their way.

Animal rights activists have threatened a series of attacks in London and the first victim, the daughter of a commercial laboratory owner, is in hospital. Gene orders his team not to sleep until those responsible are behind bars.

Their first stop is a prison where Robin Elliot, a known animal rights campaigner, is serving time for killing a scientist in the 1970s. Alex is convinced that Robin knows about the planned attacks, but with no contact with the outside world, there doesn't appear to be any way for him to be involved. Robin's eerily prescient knowledge of the future makes Alex think that he could be involved not only with the case, but with her own fate; having heard the voices of ambulancemen, Alex worries that hope is fading for her survival in the present day.

A face from Gene's old stomping ground of Manchester shows up called Jackie Queen. Jackie is a reporter who is investigating teenagers who traveled to London from the north and have disappeared.