Detective Philip 'Cato' Kwong is investigating the death of a retiree found hacked to pieces in his suburban Perth home. The trail leads to Timor-Leste, with its recent blood-soaked history. There, he reunites with an old frenemy, the spook Rory Driscoll who, in Cato's experience, has always occupied a hazy moral terrain.

Resourceful, multilingual and hard as nails, Rory has been Canberra's go-to guy when things get sticky in the Asia-Pacific. Now Rory wants out. But first he's needed to chaperone a motley group of whistleblowers with a price on their heads. And there's one on his, too.