Chris Tyroll is a busy litigation lawyer in the West Midlands. One day three clients come to him with totally different problems. The first, an Employment Tribunal case against British Defence Systems, looks complicated. BDS manufactures a seek-and-destroy weapon, 'The Retaliator'. The dismissal of one man has triggered a strike and two more workers have been sacked as a result. Then Tyroll deals with a distraught mother who cannot accept her son's death and wants to get the coroner's verdict changed from suicide to murder. The third case examines why an empty field cannot be used to graze ponies. As Tyroll investigates these cases, another client dies, and a chance comment by a witness reveals that all three cases are somehow connected. Tyroll finds himself in a deadly confrontation.