Premier League footballer Billy Green, an American, is on the long-term injured list at his home in Alderley Edge. His English wife Wendy befriends courier Tony Doyle, who works the rough streets of Manchester. A joke about a job swap is made into reality by pushy Wendy who wants to prepare her husband for life after the game. So Doyle moves into the Green's guest flat, and Green settles into Doyle's pokey bedsit. Doyle gets use of the Aston Martin, trains with Green's team mates posing as a journalist. Green meanwhile takes on the grind of Doyle's deliveries, meeting the good, the bad and the mad out on the rounds. Doyle introduces Wendy to Lee Macro, a cage fighter. She is smitten by the man and an affair develops. While helping Wendy, Doyle continues to enjoy the fabulous lifestyle. When the men swap back, Doyle makes plans to leave town with his girlfriend, Green comes to him distraught over his wife's affair, only to face a revengeful, violent twist that explains Doyle's presence in the first place.