In Aberdeen, Scotland, it doesn't just rain, it pours. The climate perfectly suits surly Detective Sergeant Logan Lazarus McRae, recently demoted to the Grampian Police's "Screw-Up Squad," after a sting operation he was manning left a senior officer dead. Desperately seeking professional redemption, McRae finds himself straddling two grisly cases: the savage murder of a prostitute and a suspicious fire that claimed six lives. Being a detective is grim, often thankless, work, and McRae and his fellow, foulmouthed officers numb themselves with a host of less-than-healthy substances: nicotine, dark ale, bacon sandwiches ("butties"), and greasy chips. There's little rest for McRae, as he navigates a world of sleazy journalists, drug-dealing grandmothers, and slick corporate financiers. But he does manage to slip in time between the sheets with fellow officer Jackie Watson, while trying to steer clear of ex-girlfriend Isobel, a forensic pathologist whose personality is just a few degrees warmer than her specimens in the morgue.