The story follows former football hooligan Ray Knight, a normal everyday family man who works as a security guard at a financial trading company in Canary Wharf, the symbol of corporate wealth which looms high over the impoverished communities below. Newfound social responsibilities are trampled underfoot when Ray's racist past is revived amid tensions between Whites and Asians jostling for position on the council housing list. Among those who are wanting to be rehoused in a new development is Ray's alcoholic ex-wife Sadie and his teenage daughter Nikki. After a failed attempt to rehouse Sadie and Nikki, and soon discovering that Nikki is involved in heroin addiction, Ray's anger drives him to join a BNP organization led by his old friend Larry Knowles.