The two main characters, Raoul and Plato, are close friends. They are both in an effective criminal organisation and seemingly untouchable. As a result, the Police assign them round the clock surveillance. When a surveillance officer out of personal frustration, begins to personally harass Plato, Plato begins to lose control. His relationship with his girlfriend breaks down and he begins to have a nervous breakdown, culminating in an epileptic fit while in Police custody.

Infuriated that Raoul seems to have left him to suffer alone, Plato insults their boss Hourihane and gets pushed out of the close knit organisation. He vows to take revenge and buys a gun which he shows to Raoul. He confesses he wants to kill a cop. Raoul, meanwhile, manages to find relief from his chaotic personal life, when he meets Raine, who brings the order and love he craves back into his life. He finds himself increasingly distracted.

In a bar, Plato meets an undercover off-duty officer. A fight breaks out, Plato goes too far and drags the officer into the back of the bar and shoots him. No one was aware, except Plato, that he was a police officer until they search the body. Now he and those with him are in trouble.

Plato disappears and Raoul and Raine go to great lengths to find him. Plato takes refuge with a gun dealer, but while distracted by the police, he shoots a young Algerian boy by mistake. Raoul tracks down Plato and persuades him to leave the city. They don't get far before they are run to ground by the tightening police operation. Surrounded by armed Police, Plato is threatening to kill himself.

Just as Raoul succeeds in calming his disturbed friend, Plato is shot by a Police marksman. Raoul has become a tragic hero. Alone at the end, he fights back the tears for his lost friend, and is lead away to almost certain incarceration.