Cat burglar William 'Spider' Scott leaves prison vowing to go straight. However, a government security officer approaches him to do a highly dangerous job, and is hounded by Detective Superintendent George Bulman.
Fairfax persuades Spider to burgle the Chinese Legation to retrieve a photo for the British Government. He accomplishes this but is seen and chased by Bulman.
Spider is tortured by two South African hitmen for the negative he stole from the Chinese. He's luckily rescued and then discovers he may be in even worse danger than he thought.
Spider has bought a half share in a small executive aircraft which he flies with his partner. One of his first customers is an acquaintance from his days of crime. He thinks nothing of it until his best friend is found dead in the Thames.
Has Riesen become involved with American crime and, if he really has, what impact will this have on Spider?
Spider is forced to fly up North en route to Russia with a bomb onboard. This turns out to be the decoy at the airport for a half a million pound robbery.
Narrowly escaping the aeroplane explosion, Spider returns home to find Reisen's body being loaded into a van. Then Bulman turns up to save him from being drowned.
Spider is invited to sit on a prison enquiry board headed by a rich merchant banker. Bulman and Willis continue dogging his tracks, with Bulman becoming ever more distracted by the need to nick Spider.
Caught up in a situation beyond his control, Spider finds that Quilter has been murdered and Bucket-Face Smith has vanished. Then he finds something nasty in the study.
A trail of corpses seems to follow Spider as he attempts to free himself from the situation he's been caught up in.
Imprisoned, Spider is involved in a conspiracy to spring himself and Norden. They succeed in breaking out of jail and Norden disappears, leaving behind a dead warden.
Bulman is hot on the trail of Spider, who finds himself in a hostage situation. The body count rises as two detectives are killed.
Maggie bonds Spider out but, when he is released, he's sought once more to risk his life in order to capture a foreign agent.
