Agent Luke Barron is out-of-step with his bosses.
The deputy director of the country's State Threats Division fears infiltration by third-world extremists and China. Luke says the real danger is from within - the dispossessed, malcontents and desperate politicians aligning under the banner of freedom. With those words he knows that his career is over.
He's in a bad way - his wife has recently died, caught out in the last days of Covid lockdowns. Now it's just him and Jack, his pre-school son.
Suspicious cyber traffic has been detected coming from a Wellington City old-folks' home. Luke's handler at the Division assigns him to the investigation. He must go in undercover, as a cleaner. 'Just one last job for me, Luke, ' she says. 'A few days, at most.'
So simple, in and out, job done.
Instead, he becomes a hunted man, discovers the truth about his wife's death and uncovers a threat to the nation.