When judge John Deed takes the case of a man who has killed the driver responsible for his daughter's death, the high court judge gets personally involved in the situation.

Judge Deed is presiding over two cases, both of which are particularly challenging. In the first, three men have been charged with drugging and raping a woman they met in a bar. Deed is particularly concerned at the defense counsel's aggressive tactics. In the second, he must sentence a wife beater who has pleaded guilty and where it is apparent that government authorities, including MI5, would like a light sentence. When the judge reviews the evidence - the accused beat his wife with a pipe and poured boiling water over her genitals - he insists on seeing justice done.

Jo Mills is prosecuting a case of a construction site manager and foreman who are charged with not taking proper precautions when a young 19 year old is killed in an accident on his first day on the job. The accused worked for Mike Briggs, a tyrannical managing director who had no time for health and safety issues and constantly pushed to get more work done. Deed agrees to take on the case and sets out to find a way to make sure the person truly responsible finds himself in the dock. He is up against government forces who think otherwise and who set out to discredit him.

Roberto Romero is released after serving 8 years of a 12 year sentence and he has only one objective - to seek revenge on Judge Deed who he sees as the person primarily responsible for putting him behind bars. He harasses the judge and his daughter and even poisons his dog. The situation is all the more difficult as the judge's relations with the police have reached a low ebb given that he has refused bail to two police officers charged with beating a youth and with intimidating an eye witness. In other cases, Deed presides over the trial of a one time professional boxer who beat his best friend into a coma when he learns the man and his wife are having an affair and with two litigious brothers who have been in court for years and flatly refuse to resolve their dispute.

Dr. Helena Bellew is charged with murder in the care of an elderly cancer patient after his family learns that the doctor is to inherit the old man's estate. She is accused of administering an overdose of pain killers but the science is not clear cut on the issue. Judge Deed's handling of the case brings him again into conflict with Sir Ian Rochester and the Lord Chancellor's Department. In family court, Judge Deed hears the case of an HIV-positive woman who refuses to allow her child to be tested. The local council takes the child into care as a result. Deed's father is slowly dying and wants to tell him something important but lapses into a coma before he can do so. It's left to Deed's sister to tell him a family secret that affects him greatly.