Mysterious death. Grieving mother. Government conspiracy. Edinburgh hackette Nicola McLaren has heard it all before. Just a routine investigation into the whole heap of nothing that forms the humdrum grind of real life journalism, right? Wrong. Before long people try to kill her, a lunatic ex-soldier abducts her and she finds herself chased halfway across the country to meet aliens she's not even sure exist. Oh, and then she has to save the world.