A protection racket moves in to the sleepy west-country village where Dan Mallett, a poacher who lives on the edges of legality, lives. So as to protect his own freedom of movement Dan is forced to turn to the law and its enforcement, but his methods are far from legal and certainly truly original and sensational. He tackles the incomers with all of the guile and knowledge of illegal methods built up in his own life on the fringes.