Chris Tyroll is a busy litigation lawyer in the West Midlands. He'd like to have long lunches, play golf and holiday in the Seychelles, but he puts up with early starts, no lunches and late nights. One morning three clients come to him with totally different problems. The first, an Employment Tribunal case against British Defence Systems, looks complicated. Their staff were put at risk by the company when they were at work on a potentially lethal seek and destroy weapon, 'The Retaliator'. 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. And finally, why won't a local farmer let his field be used to graze ponies? As Tyroll investigates these cases, with the aid of his sharp girlfriend, Sheila McKenna, a chance comment by a witness reveals that all three cases are somehow connected and he finds himself in a race against time to prevent another client's death...