After losing his first case of defending a man accused by notorious thief-taker Edward Forrester of highway robbery, idealistic barrister William Garrow is instructed to defend a serving girl accused of infanticide of her own baby at childbirth.

Garrow, now a celebrated Old Bailey barrister defends the case of a man accused of being the infamous London Monster, responsible for stabbing several young ladies in London. Newspaper proprietor John Julius Angerstein offers a reward for the killer being brought before the courts.

After more derision from Silvester, Garrow is spurred on to successfully defending Edgar Cole who is clearly guilty of raping a servant. This disgusts Lady Sarah and Southouse and matters become worse when Garrow fights a pistol duel with Silvester. In a second case, Garrow again confronts Forrester, defending a couple accused by him; they are saved from hanging, while Forrester is found guilty of perjury, and is stoned to death while pilloried.

Joseph Hamer is accused of treason and Garrow has the task of defending him against false evidence and a government determined to see him hanged. This episode appears to be based on the 1795 trials of Thomas Hardy (the first secretary of the London Corresponding Society) and John Horne Tooke, in which Garrow was part of the prosecution team who failed to secure a conviction. Thomas Erskine defended.

When 133 slaves are thrown off a slave ship after its water supply runs low, Garrow takes on the brutal slave trade that regards human beings as cargo when he is employed by Liverpool Assurance to prosecute the ship's captain for a fraudulent claim of £4000 for loss of cargo. He is aided by anti-slavery campaigner Gustavus Vassa. (In history the insurance company refused to pay out, but the captain died shortly after and so was not put on trial.)

Garrow defends a man, Captain Jones, of the capital offence of sodomy but the client and witnesses prove unreliable mirroring accusations fabricated against himself and Lady Sarah.

Garrow defends a British sailor imprisoned in Newgate for exposing ill treatment of sailors at the Greenwich Hospital by attacking the Admiralty and in particular its undersecretary Sir Arthur Hill, Lady Sarah's husband. At the beginning the episode also refers to the story of the celestial bed.

Garrow is in the dock accused by Sir Arthur Hill of 'criminal conversation' (adultery) with his wife Lady Sarah. The evidence against him is a combination of half truths, invention and lies, but with the moralistic Judge Kenyon, a censorious public, and Silvester's offer to defend him the truth may not be enough.

Taking on the case of James Hadfield, who is charged with high treason for attempting to assassinate King George III, Garrow tries an insanity defence though Hadfield does not fit the legal standard.

Garrow's defence of two Spitalfields silk weavers charged with industrial sabotage becomes complicated when one turns King's Evidence against the other. Southouse falls ill with gaol fever.

While prosecuting Thomas Picton for approving the use of torture as governor of Trinidad, Garrow is offered a deal by Lord Melville in exchange for helping Lady Sarah gain custody of her son. Southouse's condition takes a turn for the worse and he advises Lady Sarah to take her son from Sir Arthur's home.

Garrow successfully defends a man falsely accused of murder at a polling day riot. Approached by the victim's daughter Garrow agrees to find and prosecute the real murderer putting himself in grave danger from the man's colleagues and chief magistrate of the constabulary. Lady Sarah seeks documents to discredit Lord Melville and legally regain her son.