A dry salt lake at Woomera -- a one-time rocket-testing site for the Australian military -- doubles as the fictional Zone 39. In the future, two regions -- the New Territories and the Federal Republic -- have reached a long-awaited peace agreement brokered by a powerful group called the Central Union. Leo Megaw is sent to guard Zone 39 after his wife, a Central Union security officer, cracks the ironclad security code and learns a damaging secret, which results in her mysterious death.