As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkhata, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain. Today, Ali is chief of the homicide branch of the South African police in Cape Town. One of his staff is Brian Epkeen, a free wheeling white officer whose family was originally involved in the establishment of apartheid but who works well with Neuman. Together, through the detrius of the under priviliged and un-represented they find themselves facing a new and insidious gangland war.