Rebus follows 40-year-old police detective John Rebus, who finds himself at a psychological crossroads following an altercation with an infamous Edinburgh gangster. At odds with a job increasingly driven by corporate technocrats, involved in a toxic affair he knows he needs to end, and all but supplanted in his daughter's life by his ex-wife's wealthy new husband, Rebus begins to wonder if he still has a role to play – either as a family man or a police officer.

In a world of divisive politics and national discord, does the law still have meaning, or is everyone reverting to an older set of rules? And if so, why shouldn't Rebus do so too?