Sharman's Christmas with his daughter Judith starts with the worst of gifts: news that his ex-wife, Laura, her new husband and their baby son have been killed in a bomb explosion on a plane.

Sharman and Judith seek what little consolation they can from each other, but she instinctively knows that Sharman needs to take his mind off things. Pushed by her, he accepts a seemingly straightforward, if unlovely job babysitting a big-time American dealer who is in custody but doing one last deal - only this time on the right side of the law.

But when Sharman's around, babysitting is one step away from carnage and disaster; wanted by the police, he turns for help from the most unlikely of sources - the Yardie gangs that infest the estates of 'sarf London'. What begins as work turns to vengeance for his ex-wife's murder and battle to save the innocence - and life - of his daughter.