Could brothels ever become legal in Britain? As a Home Office Committee study the possibility of changes in the law on prostitution, the City Fathers of Southampton, faced with a nest of legally untouchable prostitutes in the notorious Derby Road, agonise publicly over the ethics of a council-run brothel. In this story of Southampton's battle with its own conscience, the council considers other systems of control in the Western World.
Inside Story examines too the alternative - roaming the streets of Soho, the red-light areas of The Hague, and brothels in Nevada and on the infamous Reeperbahn in Hamburg, talking to policemen, prostitutes and pimps.
Although denounced from pulpit and bench, the prostitute continues to ply her trade. Hers is indeed the oldest profession, for she seems to fill some deep social and biological need.