Detective Sergeant Bill Hulse has just been handed the case of a lifetime, and with it a partner with whom he shares a complicated past. Matthew O'Neil is a prominent criminal solicitor who's built a successful career by never getting personally involved. Charlie Thomas is fresh out of prison, looking to go straight for the sake of his young family. Jez is a nineteen year old kid, finally recruited into the local gang he's worshipped for years. They all live in a city on the edge of chaos. Murder and arrest rates are through the roof as a string of pretenders seek to gain control of Liverpool's lucrative drug trade, while two rival gangs use their growing influence to wage an increasingly bloody war against one another. But when a failed drug deal results in the death of twelve men, and heralds the arrival of a new player in the city's underworld, everything will change. Caught between the law and the street, with dangers on both sides, each man will risk everything to uncover the truth: who is really picking up the pieces of the shattered empire?