In London's seedy Soho district in 1963, Larry Winters (Iain Glen) murders a bartender with shocking violence. Sentenced to life behind bars, Winters has towering fits of rage that continue until prison doctors assign him to an experimental unit that gives him a route to self-expression. Flashbacks to his deprived Glasgow childhood with a delinquent older brother (Alexander Morton), his harrowing military experience and his history of drug abuse show how this troubled man became a murderer.