A body is found in the English market town of Rutherford on a patch of waste land between a housing estate and the bypass. Detective Inspector Steve Winwood has one piece of good news in that the body is identified as Bill Gibson, a freelance artist from a town about twenty miles distant. There are no clues as to how or why Gibson was dumped there. The waste land soon becomes the centre of conflict between property developers and those that want the town to remain as it is. Winwood's investigations are linked with those of local reporter Tony Meehan. Corruption in the local Council is at the centre of enquiries which are complicated with the suspicious death of a taxi driver who is linked with Gibson. The Green Man pub becomes the battleground as the Underground slowly reveal themselves as the only group that can stop the town centre being demolished to make way for a new shopping complex.