Billy Reynolds is stuck in a dead end job. So when Mr. D. asks him to drive an old friend around for a day, he accepts, no questions asked. Little does Billy know but he is about to get sucked deep inside the Essex underworld.
Jason Locke (Sean Bean) has just finished a five-year stretch and he has more than a score to settle. Driven around his old haunts by Billy, he soon discovers that his friends and enemies have got rich and more powerful in his absensce.
Feeling betrayed and determined to get back on top, Jason instigates a power struggle. Whoever is in control of security at the nightclubs in Southend also controls the sale of illegal drugs and this is how Jason intends to secure himself and his long-suffering wife, Lisa (Alex Kingston), a lot more respect.
Billy tries to come to terms with this new world of greed and excess but knows that something has to give.
This story is inspired by a single true event. It left three men dead, two serving life imprisonment and another living under an assumed identity. The rest is fiction, as are all the characters.