Frederick Evans is not a man people generally notice and almost friendless, keeps himself to himself. However, Frederick has one rather peculiar hobby. In the dead of night, he enjoys creeping around the rear gardens of houses, peering through windows and stealingwomen's lingerie from washing lines, later using the stolen lingerie to indulge in his sexual fantasies. However, during one dark, cloudy night while out knicker-knocking, Frederick sees something that presents him with an unparalleled opportunity. Frederick sees a man murder his wife."

One dark and rain swept night a surveillance operation conducted against a ruthless armed robber goes wrong and ends in the death of a young police woman. Stunned and dismayed, her police colleagues seek a scapegoat and centre their anger on her partner, DC Tom McEwan who finds himself not only unjustly blamed for her death, but revelations about his personal relationship with the dead officer result in both his dismissal from the Force and the break-up of his marriage. Some time later, the man wanted for her murder is himself reportedly killed in an automobile accident in Spain and the case...

It's 1977 and in the Govan area of Glasgow, the search for a missing child takes a dark turn when the little girl is discovered murdered. The police officers assigned to investigate the killing face an uphill struggle as they hunt the murderer, fearing he might strike again. However, the impact of the murder ripples through the inquiry team and touches the lives of not just the detectives involved, but those who had even a tentative link to the murdered girl.