Dublin. Joshua Boyce watches a jeweler from a flat across the road as he plans a job; Dixie Peyton desperate for cash, attempts a mugging, threatening her victim with an HIV-infected syringe; DI Synott calls on a rape suspect, convinced of his guilt; gangland boss Lar MacKendrick is getting back into shape after brother Jo-Jo's murder. And Garda Joe Mills apprehends a jumper from a pub roof and find he's covered in dried blood. Everyone has an axe to grind; criminals and police each have their own code, with both sides resorting to desperate measures as a means to an end.