What happens when spies grow older in a post-9/11 world? Sixty-something MI-5 agent Johnny Worricker has amassed an impressive art collection, an amicable collection of ex-wives, and a droll, unflappable relationship with the work he enjoys alongside his boss and best friend, MI5 chief Benedict Baron. But when Benedict brings to light damning evidence of British complicity with illegal American torture operations, it falls to Johnny to do the right thing.

And the right thing, in this morally ambiguous new era, is unclear — as unclear as the motives of Johnny’s neighbor, Nancy, who draws Johnny in with her sad beauty and a secret of her own.