When local solicitor Will Rockne is shot, the crime seems motiveless, but Scobie Malone has his suspicions. Will had been determined to convince people that he was more than just a suburban lawyer. When a huge amount of cash is found in his safe it would seem that he had been caught up in something big, big enough to involve Bernie Bezrow, Sydney's largest bookmaker, the Shahriver offshore bank and an elusive and undoubtedly dangerous Russian. Scobie is determined to pursue it to the end.