In this episode, Scottish soldiers are deployed in Northern Ireland as part of Operation Banner, gelignite and IRA documents are found in a chapel house in Possilpark, an explosion seriously damages a hall in Bridgeton and three off-duty Scottish soldiers are shot dead by the Provisional IRA.

In the second of two episodes, the IRA attack Shetland, a major bombing campaign is planned from Glasgow, campaigners in Dumfries and Galloway protest against the manufacture of plastic bullets and Scottish soldiers reflect on their experience of the Warrenpoint bomb and the 1981 hunger strike.