Struck-off solicitor and ex-con James Kirby persuades his former wife, Barrister Harriet Peterson to represent his old cell mate, Eddy Plater who has been charged with committing a bank robbery.
A group of three officials has to decide whether two troubled boys should stay with their mother, who runs a messy house and picks up men, or with their returned father who has limited prospects.
A sleazy defense lawyer has a racket going with a fixer who collects funds from accused individuals to buy witnesses who will get them off. Will the lady barrister's helping to bring a case against the lawyer upset the system too much?
The son of Harriet's friend is bullied by two older delinquent boys into breaking into a warehouse, where the watchman is injured. The boy's case is treated separately after he pleads guilty.
The law says, if someone dies as a result of a previous crime within a year and a day, the perpetrator of that crime can be tried for murder. Harriet now must defend the youth from the previous story (The Rain It Raineth) once again.
Conflict between the legal system and the new Cold War security state: when a physicist in a top secret facility is found dead, Harriet risks losing her work by helping the man's mother establish a murder case.
A Chicago style gangster manages to intimidate any cronies who could testify to the authorities about a beating. Harriet tries to help the son of one of these cronies who is also threatened.
Two stories: a couple squabble over "maintenance" as they separate (the husband claims he was married to two women); the start of a relationship for Harriet as she helps a doctor accused of prescribing a fatal antibiotic.
After an ambitious young policeman fails to bring a case against two ruffians who trashed a restaurant, his embittered superior brings a case of his own, against the policeman, accused of taking bribes from them.
Cajoled into doing a morning motoring group case labelled a quick guilty plea, Harriet lands up representing the defendant as not guilty, delaying an afternoon appearance at another court, resulting in a judge's tongue lashing.
Harriet's partner offers a lucrative case, an appeal to a county council decision that went against a massive development project in a rural preserve. The case pits a feudal brigadier against a shifty and inexperienced capitalist.
After anonymous letters, a woman's previous husband is disinterred and she is accused of murder. Defending her, Harriet is conflicted by her duty to reveal an incriminating letter the suspect had written.
