Eddy Brownlea loses his government job and his wife, who has been ill for some time dies. He has a son and a daughter. His son loves him but his daughter hates his guts. He receives a telephone call from a mysterious woman named Margo who tells him she thinks they may be related. On the way to meet her on his motorcycle a car deliberately runs him off the road. He awakes in hospital, not badly injured, to be told by a policeman that Margos car has been found in the river but no body.
When he is released from hospital Margo turns up at his house, then strangers break and attack them. there is a shoot out but they escape and must go on the run helped by some of Eddies dodgy mates. In the course of the pursuit, which involves a 600km journey by road, Eddy learns of the theft many years before of an object that the pursuers will stop at nothing to regain.
This object, a relic that was stolen from a bank strong room in Belgium decades before by a relative who had deserted from the British army during the first world war. Eddy and Margo must travel to another New Zealand city, Auckland, to meet people who will reveal the secrets of his family to him. During the journey Margo tells him lies and changes her story so many times that Eddy doesn't know who to trust. To further complicate matters they are also tailed by some police who only seem to sit and watch what happens. Corrupt government and police officials further complicate matters, Eddy and his friends have several lethal encounters with their mysterious pursuers until their arrival at an unexpected destination and meeting with family members he didn't know existed. There is further murder and bloodshed until a final revelation that challenges Eddie’s ability to cope with reality. Friends in high places though, offer Eddy a way out if he will give them the relic. So who can he trust?
