DS Forester, who suffers from nightmares, has been seconded to a specialist police department run by Commander McGuire, to investigate the activities of Dr York, a psychopath with connections to a Neo-Nazi organisation. He must also find Martin O'Neill, who is on the run from the police, and working for the doctor. There are rumours that the bombs the Irishman are assembling are nuclear.
The detective has a secret past life known only to his long-term lover, McGuire and McGuire's niece. The investigation becomes personal when some of Forester's friends are murdered and McGuire's niece is kidnapped.
Physically and mentally exhausted after surviving a car bomb a few hours earlier, Forester interviews a key witness. Afterwards, the detective is acutely aware that he could be charged with her murder, with little chance of proving his innocence. He teeters on the edge of a mental breakdown.
McGuire devises a desperate plan to save the detective from a murder charge. Forester is then forced to face his past and accept a new but dangerous future. By chance, he finds McGuire's niece and O'Neill, the cause of his nightmares. He also finds the last nuclear device, but by then the countdown has started.