Taggart and Livingston investigate after the discovery of a woman's severed leg. However as the body parts build up Taggart finds himself no closer to the cases solution. The investigation leads them to a butcher George Bryce who Taggart and Livingston are convinced is the killer. When he turns up dead, killed with the same gun that the dismembered corpse it appears to be another dead end. However with a little further digging links start appearing and Taggart realises he's closer to cracking the case than he thought.

Taggart and his partner Peter Livingstone are called in to investigate the macabre killing of the wife of a wealthy landowner whose body is found strangled and weighed down with luggage in a reservoir. The husband was last seen preparing to go to Switzerland with a large sum of money in a holdall.

Taggart investigates a failed rape attempt by a masked attacker. However, his job is complicated when the victim commits suicide and the criminal strikes again, and his attacks soon turn to murder.

When a woman shoots her husband after discovering that he was having an affair, it appears to be a clear-cut case - until the police realise the man was already dead when he was shot.

A by-election is taking place in Glasgow and one of the candidates represents the Referendum for the Return of Capital Punishment party. When the candidate and her agent are murdered, Taggart is pressed for a quick solution to the crime.

The death of a policeman during an armed raid in London in which a number of diamond thieves managed to get away with a large haul, is traced back to Scotland as DCI Taggart and the team have to contend with a gypsy's curse. When the matriarch of a gypsy family is found murdered in her caravan, the case takes an unexpr caravan.