This is a fact based fictional drama portraying events that are all too common within mental health services nationally.  It tells the semi-autobiographical story of a health service manager who is faced with a number of serious incidents including several homicides carried out by people with severe mental illness and a local health service Trust hospital that is miss managed and complacent about matters.   The stress of fighting this complacency leads to the break up of the managers marriage and a fall into the depth of a depressive illness that sees him attempt to take his own life before carrying out the brutal slaying of his ex-wife and her new partner.  Ironically he is sent to a secure psychiatric hospital himself but his knowledge of the system and his contacts in the NHS assist his escape.

A number of real incidents are used as background to the early chapters.  The first chapter describes in detail the events leading up to a homicide and is based on an actual homicide.  Chapters three, five and seven are likewise based upon actual incidents.  The characters and the plot are loosely based around real people and real occurrences. 

This is a chilling portrayal of the psychiatric system and of how, on a daily basis, society faces risks it never knows it is taking.