Two decades after the assassination of President Trump and the deployment of a nuclear device in the Middle East, the world order has not rebalanced. The final extinction of North Sea oil has left the UK weak and isolated, its failed governments north and south of the border provoked into taking desperate measures, Scotland's north-east seeing the transformation of redundant oil towns into regulated settlements for the millions fleeing the southern Mediterranean. With order maintained by a business-savvy Chinese administration, a conundrum is set for the band of Scottish partisans struggling to preserve their nation. Encumbered by an insidious regime of electronic surveillance, Rory, Rosey and Zippo find the threat they face becoming more opaque as they unravel the plans of Rosey's grandfather until, doubtful as to who is their enemy, the three comrades find themselves labouring in a quixotic theatre of war that exchanges political idealism for high-tech tyranny.