Without Sin (ITVX)

Without Sin

Full series drop on ITVX on Wednesday 28 December

Series synopsis:

Psychological thriller Without Sin explores the relationship which develops between a grieving mother and the man she believes murdered her daughter.

In this four-part drama, Vicky McClure (Line of Duty, This is England, Broadchurch, Trigger Point) plays the role of grieving mother, Stella Tomlinson, whose 14-year-old daughter Maisy, is found dead at their family home with the bloodied, hooded figure of Charles Stone (Johnny Harris - The Salisbury Poisonings, Medici, Troy: Fall of a City) standing over her.

The Nottingham-based drama focuses upon Stella’s life three years on from the death of her daughter and how she is still hostage to her grief. The loss of her beloved only child has created deep divisions in her life, as she struggles on a daily basis to come to terms with this.

Wracked with guilt and remorse at the events of that night, she chooses to live a nocturnal existence as an Uber driver. She is estranged from husband Paul, who still lives in the family home. When contacted by Restorative Justice, and in an attempt to move on, Stella and Paul reunite to listen to a taped recording of Charles, who they believe wants to atone for his sins and apologise for murdering their daughter.

Following this development, Stella returns to her roots in the Millfields estate. Surrounding herself with the people she trusts and holds dear, her mother Jessie and best friend Remy, she decides to take things with Charles one step further.

Stella agrees to visit the prison alongside a Restorative Justice Mediator and come face to face with her daughter’s killer. But nothing could prepare her for what Charles has to say next…

Without Sin is a co-production between Left Bank Pictures and BYO Films.

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Episode 1:

We meet Stella Tomlinson three years on from the night that her 14-year-old daughter Maisy was found murdered at their family home, with the hooded figure of Charles Stone standing over her body. Wracked with guilt and remorse at the events of that night, Stella chooses to live a nocturnal existence as an Uber driver. She is estranged from her ex-husband PAUL, who still lives in their old family home with his new girlfriend, Meera.
 
When contacted by Restorative Justice, and in an attempt to move on, Stella and Paul reunite to listen to a taped recording of Charles, who they believe wants to atone for his sins and apologise for murdering their daughter.
 
Following this development, Stella returns to her roots in the Millfields estate - a stark contrast to the middle-class neighbourhood she lived in with Paul and Maisy - and surrounds herself with the people she holds dear, her mother Jessie and ex-boyfriend turned best friend Remy. But when Paul tells her that Meera is pregnant and he wants to move on with his life, Stella hits rock bottom.
 
With nothing to lose, Stella agrees to visit the prison alongside a Restorative Justice Mediator Bobbi, and come face to face with her daughter’s killer. But instead of confessing to Maisy’s murder, Charles flips the meeting, telling Stella he’s been framed. He urges Stella to investigate the disappearance of another local girl, Cleo Dale, who he believes is somehow connected to Maisy’s death.
 
At home, Stella tries to push Charles’ words out of her head, but when she learns that Maisy and Cleo were friends - they attended the same local riding school - she returns to the prison to meet with Charles again.

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Episode 2:

At their second meeting, Stella wants answers. Charles tells Stella that he was sent to her house that night by the McKellers, a notorious crime family on the Millfields estate. When he got there, Maisy was already dead.

At home, Stella wrestles with whether to trust Charles and follow up on Cleo’s disappearance. In spite of Paul’s protests, Stella tries to find answers in the old community she left behind, and reconnects with Jessie and Remy (now a police officer, who still harbours romantic feelings for Stella) in the process.

She tries to unearth who Charles really is and starts visiting those who knew him best. Whilst his son Teddy has stayed loyal to his dad, Stella can detect some tension between the father and son. More worrying is her meeting with Charles’ father, Eric, who gives Stella a troubling insight into Charles’ past. But in spite of the warnings, Stella still finds herself being drawn into Charles’ story of innocence - that he was set up by the McKellers.

Linking the McKellers to the murder comes with its own risks for both Stella and Charles, so while she investigates on the outside, he tries to keep a low profile on the inside, particularly after Karl McKeller is suddenly transferred to the same prison wing as Charles.

Meanwhile, Stella investigates Cleo’s disappearance and delves into her troubled life, learning that she lived between her addict mother Elaine and a care home. It’s a far cry from the world Maisy lived in – or so Stella thought.

After discovering a troubling video of Maisy and Cleo stealing and taking drugs, suggesting they may have been hanging around with the McKellers, Stella is left questioning how well she really knew her daughter. 

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Episode 3:

Stella recognises the location in the video of Maisy and Cleo as the local riding school, owned by Jessie’s new boyfriend Kelvin. She questions him in conjunction with Maisy’s murder, bringing mother-daughter tensions to the surface.

Stella delves into Maisy’s secret life, discovering a photo of Maisy with a message addressed to ‘Misty’ written on the back. After visiting Maisy’s old school friend Aashna, Stella learns that there was a rumour that Maisy was going out with a drug dealer.

When Kelvin confesses to taking backhands from the McKellers to keep the riding school afloat, Stella begins to investigate Roman McKeller, a mid-level operator in the crime syndicate. This leads her to his nephew Lee – could he have been one of the boys Maisy and Cleo were hanging around with?

As Stella pursues this lead, Charles tries to keep his head above water in prison, while grieving after his father’s death – who passed away thinking Charles was a guilty man. The McKellers are onto him, and Roman pays Charles a visit - threatening not only him, but Teddy too - leading a volatile Charles to attack Karl in prison.

When Stella manages to track down Lee, who refers to Maisy by her nickname ‘Misty’, she becomes convinced of his involvement in Maisy’s death.

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Episode 4:

Stella finally tells Charles she believes him - she thinks Lee is behind Maisy’s murder and Roman is covering it up. But Stella is stunned when Charles tells her she needs to stop her investigation, now his son’s life is at risk.

Yet Stella won’t give up. After breaking into Lee’s car, she tracks a parking fine to a run-down building, where she finds a dishevelled Cleo, seemingly being held captive.

Meanwhile, Charles finds himself fighting for his life in hospital after a savage stabbing, as the McKellers make good on their threat, turning his naive cellmate JAMAL against him.

Stella takes Cleo back to Paul’s house, to keep her safe from the McKellers. Triggered by being back in the house where Maisy died, Cleo comes clean about what really happened. At the same time, Teddy visits Charles in hospital and also confesses.

Stella and Charles learn that Maisy and Teddy were in a teenage relationship and Cleo was Maisy’s best friend. On the night she died, Maisy invited them - along with Lee, who worked as a petty drug dealer with Teddy - to get drunk at her parent’s empty house. A fight ensued after Maisy discovered that Teddy and Cleo were sleeping together in secret, bringing the class divides between Maisy and the rest of the group to a head. Maisy lashed out aggressively, causing Cleo to hit her over the head and accidentally kill her.

Panicking, Lee called his dad, who sent Charles, working for the McKellers at the time, to Maisy’s house. Teddy, harbouring resentment towards his dad, let Charles take the rap for Maisy’s murder. Cleo lived with the guilt until she got into the back of Stella’s Uber one night and, seeing how broken she was, decided to run away with the help of Lee.

A few months later, Stella begins a new Restorative Justice journey with Cleo - this time, she’s ready to forgive - and is back in the family fold with Jessie and Remy. She meets up with Charles, now a free man, who says he’s leaving Millfields to start afresh, while Stella tells him she’s doing better.