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 ...
