The thing about photography is that, sometimes, it captures an accidental reality that was never the intention of the photographer. The grinning idiot in the background, the unfortunate reflection in a mirror. But what do you do when an old photograph shows something in the background that challenges an accepted truth about history? Fate drops just such a photograph into the lap of a man who already owns another piece of the same jigsaw. Drawn by an increasing obsession to solve the mystery of the old photograph, he unwittingly uncovers a different kind of truth. A truth about what it really means to live in a free democracy, and which has been active for a hundred and fifty years: a truth that deals in state-sponsored intimidation, blackmail and murder.