DCI Taggart, a street-wise Glaswegian copper and DS Livingstone, a recent college graduate, are forced to work together after the discovery of a strangled young blonde woman's body by a jogger.
After the discovery of a second body, DCI Taggart zeroes in on a suspect who has a clear link to the victim but runs into problems with his superior, Superintendent Murray, who is old friends with the suspect.
After a suicide and a letter from the killer addressed to him personally, Taggart decides to acts on his hunches despite his superior and arrest his prime suspect, but it might be too late to save a misguided blackmailer's life.