The body of a teenage girl is found and the investigation leads Jane into a community who distrust the police. Jane has recently had an affair with DS Bob Oswalde and he is assigned to the case. David Harvey confesses to the murder but neither Jane or Bob believe him. Bob is convinced that it is really the girl's young neighbour Tony Allen. Together they are able to discover who the real murderer is.

Transferred to a new station with the new job of 'cleaning up the streets' of Soho, DCI Jane Tennison and her new team become involved in the seedy underworld of vice involving rent boys and transvestites, pornography and sickening abuse.