Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs uncle is visiting his nephew in Cairns. Ray Downs had adopted Sarge when Sarge was only four after his parents had been killed in a car accident. Ray was normally a quietly spoken man, mainly because his wife Jean wouldn't let him get a word in edgeways. However, when he was given a number of drinks, Ray became quite garrulous and told Sarge and Sarge's partner Sarah about the time he was caught up in National Service. Instead of being sent to Vietnam, Ray was seconding to the intelligence section of the army based in Canberra, where he came across some illegal operations, spying and corruption around the time of the change in government in Australia when the Labor Party's Gough Whitlam rose to power.