Jo Mills was planning to take time off work, but then she agrees to defend a man who escaped trial sixteen years before after he was charged with attempted murder. Jo is partly attracted to the case because she recognizes two of the detectives who are mixed up in it.

Deed has three drug-dealers in his court accused of a vicious gang killing, and he comes under pressure from government law officers to hear the case without a jury. A witness is killed, and the jury starts to melt away. If the case is abandoned, the dead witness's evidence will be lost, but Deed wrestles with his conscience over setting what to him would be a terrible precedent. Meanwhile, Jo's application to adopt Michael is turned down by the Adoption Panel, who feel she is too busy with her legal career to look after a child. Deed encourages Jo to challenge the Panel's decision in the High Court.

Deed has the case before him of a man charged with killing a paedophile, but the jury find the defendant not guilty. After his acquittal, the man calls a press conference and sends out a message calling for similar actions elsewhere. Meanwhile, Marc Thompson, Michael's real father, arrives in England from overseas. This seems to end Jo's hopes of adopting Michael, but she starts dating the new arrival, sending Deed into a jealous rage. Deed then unwisely starts a new affair with a woman appearing in his court as a claimant in an action, and Jo decides to move with Marc to South Africa.