It's easy to make mistakes, even when your heart's in the right place ...
 
When a young boy approaches sometime teacher Daniel Hood for advice, it's impossible for Daniel to ignore the marks of fists on his face.  Most people would think twice before accusing hot-shot local lawyer Adam Selkirk of beating his son, but as Daniel tells his friend Brodie Farrell, the price of discretion could be a child with a fractured skull. 

Meanwhile Brodie has problems of her own.  It wasn't a phantom pregnancy: she's going to have her second child in five months' time, and she isn't on speaking-terms with its father.

And even the father, Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon, has more than enough on his plate.   A high flier from the Serious Organised Crimes Agency has her gaze firmly fixed on local villain Terry Walsh, who is both a long-term thorn in Deacon's side and a boyhood friend.  Detective Inspector Alix Hyde has also subborned Deacon's trusty sergeant Charlie Voss.

Following some inspired detective work DI Hyde arrests Terry Walsh for murder - only to have him produce as an alibi his own solicitor, the same Adam Selkirk.  Of course, nobody's going to believe a man who abuses his own son: if Selkirk insists on lying for his client she'll expose him.  But what will she do if he withdraws his statement?  Turn a blind eye to his penchant for domestic violence?

Deacon thinks she will.  Voss can't believe it.  And all Daniel cares about is protecting a twelve-year-old boy.  But none of them has the full picture yet, and in consequence the judgement of each of them is flawed ...