The search is on for four young men to ""crew"" the new cars in the tough and troubled district of Newtown, a North of England overspill estate. A mixed community, displaced from the larger towns by slum clearance, has been brought together and housed on an estate without amenities.

A girl disappears, and Steele and Lynch are faced by a conspiracy of silence in her broken family.

Complaints about a fast-moving, fast-talking door-to-door salesman give Weir and Smith a busy day, while Sgt. Watt prepares the trap.