Paul Hassett is taken ill and dies while visiting private detective Johnny Treherne. The following the day, Treherne is visited by the police and a number suspicious characters wanting to know what he said.
The file on Johnny Treherne's father's last case, investigating a protection racket in Sidwell, is stolen from his office. He later discovers a dog track owner is also caught up in it but Candy Hassett is attacked after talking to him.
Candy Hassett is found raped and murdered but not before she passed Treherne a tape recording of her husband paying off a blackmailer. Stratton's men beat up Treherne to retrieve the tape thus taking all the evidence.