In the aftermath of a frenzied stabbing of a Kurdish minicab driver, DCI Burke finds himself working alongside DS Hannah Fairchild, an officer on a fast track scheme who is an expert in race-hate crimes and is ambitious to boot. DS Reid, DI Ross and DC Fraser take to her at once. However Burke and Fairchild quickly rub each other up the wrong way. Meanwhile, Ross is warned that war is imminent and Burke has to stop it before he can solve the crime otherwise Glasgow
will be littered with bodies.