Alan Lomax is released from prison and returns to London to find that his wife has emigrated and that his son is missing. He leaves London and embarks on his narrowboat Harmony. He takes up with a young woman, Andrea, and sorts out a demanding drug dealer for a former nurse who has become addicted. He gives her the dealer's money so she can book herself into a clinic.
Lomax receives a call from his sister, informing him that their mother is very ill. He returns to London in hopes of seeing her, but his father, who believes Lomax guilty of the crime he served two years for, refuses to let him visit.
Lomax arrives in a Welsh Village looking for his son, Steve. As an Englishman, Lomax is already viewed with suspicion and disdsin by locals, and things get worse for him when Mary, a seven-year-old girl, goes missing.
A bullet smashes through the window of Lomax's barge, believing someone is out to get him he seeks out the shooter, and discovers he is not the target but a witness in protective custody is.
Working in a riverside pub, Lomax is spotted by someone who is very nervous about Lomax being nearby, so the intruder involves a visiting Australian named Kenny to intimidate Lomax into moving on.
Lomax attends his mother's funeral and reconciles with his father, unaware that there are dubious motives being set into motion by those he once trusted.