In Canberra, Australia, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany has been terror-bombed twice, and twice very successfully... The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's (ASIO's) best secret agent, Luthan Fennes-aka the 'Retimer', who 'has his lifetimes again', so to speak-is called in to investigate what, at first, seems the reprisal by human traffickers against Police raids recently on corrupt embassy staff accepting bribes for European Union travel visas. But it soon becomes a tug-of-war between two great old-war foes on the world stage...with Fennes both in the midst of it all, and as the key to ending the crisis before one of the sides can go much too far-nuclear with the help of its rogue satellite state, North Korea...