The newly formed Independent Republic of South Australia is the phoenix that rises from the ashes of a decaying and corrupt Australian Commonwealth, becoming wealthy beyond imagination on the back of uranium. However, the real power lies with Double Happiness Uranium, a massive global energy corporation secretly developing the ultimate weapon, a neutron bomb that targets the biological cells of select individuals. Brilliant and ambitious physicist Reuben Henschke is head of the company's 'Peace Department', his task is to perfect the bomb to prolong the war between China and Russia. During the final testing stage disaster strikes - Reuben's wife and fellow scientist Samira is killed and Reuben has a complete breakdown, suffering total memory loss. In a desperate effort to reignite the program Double Happiness Uranium employs highly controversial Russian psychotherapist Yuri Savchenko to reprogram Reuben's mind to extract the vital data. In this layered world of stories within stories, the final twist reveals that the re-programming has happened before and will happen again.