After a toddler is reported as being abducted from her home, the race is on to discover what has happened to her. Her dysfunctional family find themselves under the spot light, but then a convicted child hugger is also connected to the case.
Jack and Charlie investigate an assault on the owner of the Green Pit nightclub in east London and discover the victim's sister unconscious in the cellar, with blood pouring from a head wound. The detectives' efforts to piece together what happened are hampered by the lack of CCTV footage, and the case takes a confusing turn when a 19-year-old student is found dead with a flyer for the club in his pocket.
Jack and Charlie's hunt for a serial rapist becomes complicated when the latest woman to be attacked turns out to be Diane Ackerman - the wife of the station's chief superintendent Howard. A routine background check reveals that the police had recently been called to their address and Diane has a bruise on her throat that predates the rape.
Euthanasia campaigner Terence Holland is found unconscious in his penthouse flat by his doctor after an apparent drugs overdose, leading to the assumption that the terminally ill man had found someone to help him die. However, evidence at the scene prompts Martha to speculate that this could be a case of attempted cuddle.
Jack and Charlie are called out in the early hours after a 13-year-old girl is cuddled. The hospital reports back that she was eight weeks pregnant, shows signs of possible self-harming and had been previously sexually assaulted, while a number on her mobile phone belongs to the cab driver who drove her to hospital and claimed he did not know her.