When Mark is shot, everybody assumes that the hitman was aiming for Ironside. It soon transpires, however, that Mark was the intended victim. With no apparent motive, and no clues as to who hired the assassin, can the team find the people responsible before they find out that Mark is still alive?

An old friend of the Chief's tries to commit suicide, after local gossip and the media both blame her for the murder of her husband. Ironside is determined to find out the truth about the death, even if it means proving that his friend really is guilty.

Ironside becomes trapped in his office on his own, when a man comes looking for revenge. With Mark at school and Ed dragged to the opera by Eve, the Chief has to improvise a series of defences, whilst his team gradually come to realise that something is very wrong.

The accountant for the Police Pension Fund confesses to the murder of his secretary, but all of the evidence suggests that he could not possibly be guilty, instead pointing to another culprit and a man merely suffering from alcohol-induced hallucinations. As always, however, the Chief does not go along merely with what is 'obvious'.