In the military family there is no worse crime than cowardice. Malachy Kitchen, Intelligence officer, posted to Iraq, appears guilty of it while on patrol with an infantry platoon ambushed by insurgents. When word spreads that he was 'yellow' under hostile fire, his life starts to disintegrate. Kicked out of the army, he becomes an isolated recluse in a drugs infested London estate. But the mugging of his neighbour, an elderly widow, by addicts lights the flame that draws him to regain his lost pride, to take the fight to the narcotics network he sees around him. But it is not so simple - because the drugs routes have been colonised by other factions who want to deliver equally dangerous packages around the world. And if Malachy is to complete his quest, he must first enter one of the darker alleyways of life...