When a young civilian dies in a brawl in a garrison town, a badly injured paratrooper is held to have been responsible. The military police sergeant who leads the investigation with the local police comes to the conclusion that the paratrooper had taken advantage of his unarmed combat expertise against the innocent youth but was surprised when he was not charged as he had been attacked by several of the dead youth's friends.
The military policeman and the paratrooper came together again, coincidentally, many months later when both had left the armed forces and had set up extremely different businesses. They met in the karate club that the ex-paratrooper had opened, and Tom Mitchell, the ex-MP enrolled out of curiosity.
Jim Doyle, the ex-paratrooper, was an orphan who had lost his mother when he was twelve years old and had never known his father who was said to have died before Jim's birth. He knew nothing about his father. And as he had been involved in several incidents that had resulted in the death of several people, all of which had been deemed to be accidental, he feared that he had not been completely innocent in any of the accidents and may have inherited some mental impediment.
The reader is made aware of Jim's background and crimes. But Tom, whose sister, Margaret, had become romantically involved with Jim, set out to discover the truth of Jim's previous life. By putting together chance remarks and some minor incidents, a shocking background is revealed. As he gets older, Jim becomes involved in some serious crimes in Edinburgh, which led to Tom suspecting Jim's involvement.
Tom confronts Jim with what he has learned and what he suspects, and when the two men come together in Edinburgh's stunning Holyrood Park, the truth is exposed, and the story is brought to a close with the sowing of further possibilities.
