The cold grey walls of Grimestone maximum-security prison stand like a fortress in the green rolling countryside. Imprisoned within its confines are some of the country's most dangerous criminals and John Croxten is unlucky enough to be a serving officer. Ferguson is an evil prisoner who has built up a destructive drugs empire around him. He is a man who rules by fear and who allows nothing and no one to get in the way of his dealings. He also harbours an intense hatred for prison staff, especially John, and proves this by continuous confrontation.

Eventually, along with his friend Dick Wilson, John sets out to smash Ferguson's empire, with devastating consequences. Ferguson finally proving just how evil he really can be.

As an antidote to the traumas of working within the prison confines, both men enjoy regular sessions of heavy drinking coupled with a certain amount of womanising. Then they meet Emma and Lynn, two young women with whom they begin a steady relationship, still however, enjoying the analgesic relief that the alcohol grants them, in relation to their stress related working environment.

Unfortunately, as strong as John's feelings are for Emma, he is unable to resist the attention of other females and eventually weaves himself a tangled, complicated and dangerous web of deceit.

Due to John and Dick's efforts within the prison, Ferguson's vile empire slowly begins to crumble. Then the prisoner begins to hatch his plot, finally exacting a disastrous and horrifying revenge.

Terry Stones was born in 1944 and raised in Leicester. At the tender age of fifteen he joined the regular army where he served until 1974. In 1966 he married his wife Maggie raising two daughters then, in 1975, he joined the prison service where he remained for eighteen years. During that time he served in three different maximum-security prisons. He is now retired and lives in Lincolnshire.