Ex-cop, Laurie Downes has displayed erratic behaviour and has taken the law into his own hands. Having assessed him as safe to be released on bail, Jane discovers that his actions have a specific purpose. He is on the trail of two rapists who are responsible for the death of his lover. Jane has discovered that she needs surgery as the result of a Papp Smear where irregular cells have shown up. When one of the rapists is murdered, everything points to Laurie, but Jane finds that it is she who is the rapist's intended victim.

While Jane works on a fairly mundane case for the parole board; that of a girl accused of malicious damage to a neighbour's car; she begins an affair with a married police officer, Det. Brett Murray. The case he is working on involves a number of missing persons who turn up dead. Jane soon finds a link between the two, but when the cop offers to leave his wife, Jane's fear of commitment causes them to split up. As a result, Jane finds herself in extreme danger from a pair of mentally unstable and irrational girls.