Alistair Duncan, a cut-and-thrust Bristol solicitor, takes on a claim to compensate Roger Goodhart, who is a wheelchair victim of a road accident in which his car has been mysteriously crushed by a French juggernaut.

In France, with the help of the beautiful Helene, he pursues the lorry driver, facing violence and danger. Furthermore, a High Court Judge reports him to the Law Society for alleged misconduct. The climax is a tense, authentic Crown Court battle and its aftermath. Both the "spy in the cab" (properly: the tachograph) and the lotteries in the lawyers' world of compensation cases are exposed.