In the episode, Æon has infiltrated Bregna at a time when Trevor Goodchild has accepted power 'temporarily' from the kidnapped chairman Clavius. Trevor quickly enacts a policy of 'complete openness', installing cameras all across Bregna which gives him ultimate control over the people. Gildemere, a Breen soldier loyal to Clavius, is plotting against the new Chairman guessing rightly that Trevor was the mastermind behind the kidnapping. Trevor's reasons for the coup are two-fold; he gains ultimate power in Bregna, and uses Clavius' body to create an isolated place locked with a strange ornate key ...

The episode starts with a pair of boys play-fighting while another claps to mimic the sound of heavy punches. That boy later flicks a pebble into the path of one of the border turrets activating it and watching the resulting spectacle. Trevor Goodchild is being pressured by the government into making the border more intimidating, despite his desire to make people stay in Bregna through the 'power of ideas'. To this end, he secretly allows Æon to come in and bomb the factory where the parts for the wall are being made. In a parallel and intertwined storyline, two Breen lovers, Onan and Sybil, seek to escape from Bregna into Monica through a gap in the frontier ...

As the episode starts, Goodchild has perfected a method of copying humans. Determined to put an end to the operation, Æon and a fellow agent, Scaphandra who is a double-agent for Bregna, cross the border into Bregna. Scaphandra has lost parts of her feet during a previous crossing and has had hands transplanted to replace the missing parts of her feet. As Æon rushes towards Trevor's base of operations, Scaphandra is captured and taken to Trevor Goodchild who takes a sample of her for copying. Æon comes in, frees Scaphandra and tackles Trevor about the ethics and inner purposes of his operation. Deliberately presenting an opportunity for Trevor, Æon allows him to take a sample of her though Æon smashes Scaphandra's sample. After Æon leaves, Trevor copies Æon for himself.

It is revealed to be a complex plot by Æon to ...

The episode opens with Æon chasing Bambara, a vicious man who frequently causes injury or death to those he encounters. Æon, ignoring his victims, pursues him through a train and onto a building site. Bambara escapes Æon killing a construction worker in the process but is captured by Trevor Goodchild. He inserts a strange robot into Bambara through the man's navel and he suddenly loses his darker side, becoming friendly to those around him and quickly befriending an orphan. Trevor says the robot is a 'Custodian', an artificial conscience of his creation which he hopes to implant in all citizens. Æon then meets up with an organization of women who are opposed to Trevor's project who are planning to remove the implanted Custodians and bring the operation to an end. Æon goes after Bambara's Custodian ....