When a body is found in the boot of a car being crushed in a scrap metal yard, DCI Taggart and DS Jardine are called to investigate. The grisly details are repeated shortly after when a second body is found in the same scrapyard. Taggart and Jardine investigate a link between drugs and the art world.

When an elderly man is found brutally murdered in his home, DCI Taggart and DS Jardine suspect the daughter and her husband. Then another elderly person is murdered and the detectives struggle to find a connection. Eventually, a Post Office worker who also moonlights in a retirement home comes to their attention. WPC Jackie Reid joins the team.

The death of a policeman during an armed raid in London in which a number of diamond thieves managed to get away with a large haul, is traced back to Scotland as DCI Taggart and the team have to contend with a gypsy's curse. When the matriarch of a gypsy family is found murdered in her caravan, the case takes an unexpr caravan.