Chief Inspector Alan Banks, a big-city detective newly arrived in the Yorkshire town of Eastvale, is suddenly confronted with a minor crime wave. A Peeping Tom is alarming his victims and arousing Eastvale's strident feminists. Then a pair of young toughs take to harassing and robbing the elderly. When an old woman is murdered in her home, Banks must determine if yet a third criminal--a killer--has surfaced, and if any or all of these events are related.