PCs Jim Carver and Cass Rickman wander through a CID obbo, allowing suspect Micky Harris to go free. Trying to make amends, Carver tries to contact a former snout from his CID days, Steve Raines. As they make enquiries, Carver's old friend, nightclub manager Alan Brooks notices Carver's dissatisfaction with uniform work and offers him a job as security manager at his club. Carver finds Raines, now a junkie, who gives Rickman a duff lead on a building society robbery. Carver convinces Raines's estranged wife Alice to give him a second chance, and eventually Raines agrees to testify against Harris. With the nightclub job all but his, Carver reluctantly prepares to hand in his notice, but when the job just as quickly falls through, he turns to a hip flask of vodka in his locker to console himself...