During a live-firing exercise Private Andy Walden a member of the Bedford Light Infantry is killed. Meanwhile Corporal Jo McDonagh is investigating the theft of regimental mascot ""Augustus the 14th. Shorthanded Sergeant Major Burns grudgingly reinstates her back to the rank of Sergeant and a full member of his SIB team. Lance Corporal Stowe, who made the fatal mistake, faces a charge of murder and more worryingly it looks like he was high on LSD at the time.

An exhausted Private Tracey Walters of the Royal Logistics Corps is driving an army truck full of Royal Cambria Fusiliers back from a three-day exercise. There is a commotion in the back and suddenly a car is upon them from the other direction. Sam swerves but the truck goes into the car and crushes it. SIB and the German Police arrive at the scene and it seems clear Sam fell asleep or lost concentration. Worse still, Jo finds explosive flash burns on the tarmac behind the crash site.

Willi Hartung, a German Police Sergeant is shot dead by a gunman during a failed robbery attempt - just one in a sequence of similar crimes. Meanwhile, Jo and Roper investigate the apparent suicide of Corporal Luke Gemmill the driver for Lieutenant Colonel Cosgrove CO of the Wessex Regiment. Forensics prove that Gemmill was murdered - but why was his body found in the luxury car hired from a German ex-soccer star, Kramer. When Sergeant-Major Burns learns that British guns were used in both incidents, he initiates an investigation.

Sergeant Jo McDonagh is in Bosnia on Close Protection detail as part of an international operation to capture wanted war criminal Radan Vladic.

At the remote farmhouse of Vladic's proposed arrest, only the slain remains of an advance Special Air Service (SAS) team are found, seemingly murdered in an ambush. The SAS Major at the scene is ready to call the deaths collateral damage and move out, but Jo thinks there is more than meets the eye and insists the area is preserved as a crime scene.

While boar-hunting Lance Corporal Clive Morrigan becomes prey to another hunter. Investigation into his death leads from poaching to more intimate suspects; namely, his wife, his lover, and his lover's husband.

Investigation into the death of a private during routine training exercises reveals the existence of an underground fight circuit. Suspicion falls upon an unpopular Sergeant when evidence of extortion surfaces.