Mike Walsh is a good cop, a devoted husband, and a good friend to have.  However, his life is about to be turned upside-down when he is promoted from uniformed patrol division to the elite Robbery and Homicide Division of the Indianapolis Police Department.

His transition is made easier by his original Field Training Officer, Detective Sergeant Jack Lovell.  Mike soon finds he is actually quite good at detective work.  Under Lovell's expert guidance, he helps solve a few armed robbery cases, a homicide, and the capture of an inter-state serial killer.  His wife, however, sees a different side of his promotion.  She objects to the increased dangers he faces, and the long hours the job requires. The marriage begins to suffer.

He and Lovell are put on the case of what appeares to be a routine robbery of a family style restaurant. The case soon turns into a spree of armed robberies by the same suspects, yet to be identified. Each robbery becomes more violent, eventually the murder of a Brinks Armored guard. 

Eight months into the case, Lovell and Walsh confim identtities of the suspects.  Lovell orchastrates a pre-dawn raid at three separate dwellings, with thiry-six detectives and uniformed back-up.

Tragedy strikes the team as Lovell is brutally murdered by a barrage of automatic weapons fire from suspects barricaded inside a home. A two and one half hour gun battle between police and the suspects.  All the while, just a couple of feet away, Walsh, pinned down by gunfire, stares at his friend, his mentor's lifeless body lying on the cold concrete. 

This is two weeks before Christmas.  In the aftermath of the shoot-out, Walsh's wife leaves him. He is guilt-ridden over the murder of his friend, his failed marriage. He turns to booze to ease his deepening depression.  Thoughts of suicide rumble inside his alcohol-soaked brain. Can he survive? Only time will tell.