Two detectives are assigned to solve a series of grisly murders of children. However, when their investigation leads them towards someone in their own squad room as the killer, the female detective edges on a total breakdown as she loses faith in her fellow officers. The film explores the decadence and corruption that exists in the police force.

In a Sydney suburb, two nurses, Maria and Flora, a housekeeper, Lotte, and a solicitor, Arnold, attend to Elizabeth Hunter as her expatriate son Sir Basil, a famous but struggling actor in London, and daughter Dorothy, a divorced and down at heel princess, convene at her deathbed. They come to make sure they can leave Australia with their hefty inheritance.