After a hostage rescue goes wrong, superintendent Sandra Pullman is put in charge of unsolved crimes. With little resources and no back-up she decides to recruit three ex policeman. However times have changed, unlike her new recruits. Jack Halford is yet to get over the loss of his wife, Brian Lane is over obsessed and over medicated, and Gerry Standing is not quite the ladies man he used to be. They may have the experience but it's not like the old days. Not only are they chasing criminals, but they are having to deal with a new police force which does not always appreciate their old style policing.

Two dogs escape from a laboratory and are hunted as possible carriers of the bubonic plague.