Rafferty's estranged wife Joanne arrives in Sydney to discuss a few things and he is anxious. Meanwhile, Paulyne has a crisis of conscience when she has to act for a man in an assault case.

Rafferty hears two cases about people's desire to look good.

An Italian father and his brother plant a bomb in Rafferty's chambers.

Rafferty's cases reflect people invading other people's privacy.

Work pressures get to much for Paulyne and a love affair seems the answer.

Flicker's replacement finds he has to play it by Rafferty's rules.

Double standards are apparent in a case that comes before Rafferty.

Rafferty confronts painful parallels at home when his kids arrive out of the blue.

There is an uneasy atmosphere around Rafferty's court when Flicker returns.

Fulvio learns that his teacher and idol isn't quite the perfect magistrate that he thought after he takes over when Michael falls ill.

The courthouse becomes the centre of the fallout from a Secret Intelligence Agency training exercise.

A series of sexual assaults has consequences for the courthouse when the police fit up suspects and Paulyne is attacked in her own home.

Pauline finds that her personal life is mirroring her professional life when her former lover Gavin reappears and announces that he is getting married, just as she is defending a woman who refuses to accept that her marriage is over.

The courthouse finds itself becoming caught up in the deadly web of a cult. Michael is shocked when he goes on an early morning run and discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach.

The personal and the professional converge for Flicker when the anti-nuclear group his son is involved in begins protesting the arrival of nuclear warships.

An unexpected tragedy forces Paulyne to re-evaluate her life; meanwhile she struggles to remain objective while defending a man accused of manslaughter over the death of a pedestrian.

Lisa continues to have problems settling in, with her abrasive nature putting Michael offside.

Lisa begins to wonder whether evil does exist when she defends a sociopath.

Michael's world is turned upside down after learning that he has a twenty-two year old daughter from a previous relationship.

Flicker's prosecution against a young policeman who has broken the law is complicated when he begins to recognise that something even more suspicious is going on.

Michael considers his attitudes towards both politics and rural life after his cousin comes to the city, having now been elected to Parliament and holding very different opinions to Michael.