Henry Jones ought to have been good for something more than working as a scaffolder on a building site. He had a degree the offer of a job a girl-friend only too eager to settle down to Welsh respectability. Yet instead he worked with O'Hara violent and drunken; Davies a drifter; Thomas untrustworthy; Tommy Williams universally disliked. All of them were in a state of running warfare with the foreman a tough hardworking Tynesider. When one of them is murdered it is discovered that there has been considerable organized pilfering from the site. Henry is coerced by Inspector Morgan into unofficially working for the police.