Journalist Willie Morton unravels a thirty-year old conspiracy over the 1985 death of Treasury mandarin Matthew McConnacher nineteen days after his report, claiming an independent Scotland could be economically viable, was classified. Intrigued by the state's reluctance to declassify the report, he probes the mystery of McConnacher's death and learns of a power-grab at the heart of the Cameron government led by Commander Neil Smyth, chair of the National Security Committee - whom Morton has reason to fear - and a secret military deal with hardliners in Spain to crush Catalan nationalists. With his intern Ysabet Santanac arrested in Barcelona, Morton is high on the hit list as deadly forces unleashed by London and Madrid converge to bury an inconvenient truth.