Maureen O'Donnell is facing the darkest episode in her life. She owes more than she makes in a year in back taxes; Angus Farrell, the psychologist who murdered her boyfriend, is up for trial, with Maureen as the reluctant star witness; and her abuser has arrived back in Glasgow in time for the birth of her sister's baby. On top of it all, she has managed to become embroiled in someone else's family feud. Ella McGee, an elderly stallholder at the flea market where Maureen and Leslie are selling illegally imported cigarettes, wants to bring a case against her son in the small claims court, and she asks Maureen to fill in the legal documents for her. When Ella dies in hospital after a brutal beating, Maureen, who identifies all too readily with the underdogs of this world, begins to question why anyone might want to kill the woman popularly known as 'Home Gran'. She suspects Ella's son, Si McGee; but Si is an upstanding member of the Scottish business community, runs a chain of estate agents and has a health club in Glasgow's fashionable West End. When Maureen discovers that the 'health club' fronts a much less respectable establishment, she realizes that Si could be a lot more dangerous than he seems. As Angus's trial approaches and her world begins to close in, Maureen finds that once again she is under threat, and this time she has very few protectors.