When her father dies, lawyer Sarah Curtis returns to her hometown of Bolton to wind up his law practice. She plans to leave as soon as she can but when Gerry, a family friend, goes missing and his family receive death threats, she agrees to help his wife move to a safe location and find out what's behind Gerry's disappearance.

Gerry is one of a group of ex-Bolton Wanderers footballers, who have fallen on hard times since their careers ended. When Sarah learns that another player was recently shot dead at his home, she realises the danger she is in, with threads tracing back to the highest level of organised crime.

With only a down-at-heel private investigator to help her tackle a gang of professional criminals, Sarah soon finds herself in too deep to back out and is forced into a desperate race against time to find Gerry before it's too late.