Sean Brady has turned Queen's evidence against crime boss McLintock. On the way to court, his car is ambushed and a policeman is left seriously injured. Brady escapes and flees, leaving the prosecutor with a hole in his case against McLintock. DCI Taggart falls under suspicion because he authorized the route and Internal Affairs takes a hard-edged line.
Joan Matheson arrives in Glasgow to be with her daughter who is expecting her first child. However, she reacts very badly when she learns the baby has been conceived by donor insemination. Shortly after she is found murdered and suspicion falls on her son in law whom she blamed and humiliated at a family meeting.
Cameron Friel arrives in Glasgow to attend a literary award hosted by Prof Maggi McLeish. At the ceremony, Friel receives a bullet in an envelope, and Taggart investigates who the sender might be. Meanwhile, Jake Koslewski returns from a charity mission to Romania to discover his wife, an alcohol counselor, has left him for George Proctor, a previous client.