A group of disaster capitalists, including a family-oriented businessman, a cabinet minister and his wife, a gay arms dealer and a single mother who manages a luxury hotel, combine to profit from planet-wide catastrophe, even as a young journalist and her friends work to expose their nefarious schemes.

SYNOPSIS:

In this pilot episode we meet the central characters, beginning with single mother Hazel who tries to recruit staff for the luxury hotel she manages at a nurses’ demonstration. In Parliament, ‘Minister Without Portfolio’ Crispin is met by his wife Flick. She advises him the event they have been waiting for is imminent: a coup in the Eastern European country of Lativainia. Eager to cash in on this, Crispin contacts his financial fixer Lennon who is conducting a talk about exploiting disaster for a group of business professionals.

Meanwhile Bolivian arms dealer Santiago uses a rock band’s tour of the Balkans as cover for selling weaponry and ammunitions throughout Europe. He is persuaded to travel to Lativainia with the aim of ensuring the General conducting this coup knows he can rely on his ‘friends’ in the UK.

Crispin and Lennon host a dinner at Hazel’s hotel in order to get influential politicians onside for the forthcoming Commons vote. The evening ends with escorts tending to these influential men, Crispin among them. Elsewhere investigative journalist Mia reports on Lennon and his associates for an online news outlet while sharing a cramped rental property with her posh friend Jarrod.

We see Lennon at home, doting on his family, before Santiago sails to Lativainia in a yacht with his young lover. At the hotel Hazel is confronted by an escort who was disrespected by one of the politicians at the sex party. This confrontation is witnessed by Jess, Crispin’s parliamentary aide. Lennon and Crispin continue to plot the forthcoming vote while reassuring Santiago who docks in Lativainia. The General is waiting to meet him and he tells Santiago the coup will take place the following morning.

Lennon visits a conference centre where arms manufacturers peddle their wares, advising his associate Terry to be ready to ship weapons to Lativainia. Crispin and Flick attend the garden party of her wealthy parents who needle Crispin. Jarrod and his family are there and the young man quizzes Crispin on the upcoming vote, sharing the information he gleans with Mia. She uses this insider knowledge to publish another exposé.

In a Lativainian barracks Santiago pretends to be straight as the General sends sex workers to ‘entertain’ him. The next day Mia and Jarrod watch the coup unfold on TV while the ruling dictator holes up, away from the violent clashes in the streets.

Crispin gives a convincing speech to parliament before a fortune in military support and aid is approved by MPs. Santiago wakes to find the barracks under attack from the ruling dictator’s Special Forces who are hitting back at the General and his troops. Santiago contacts Lennon during the firefight before being captured and thrown into prison.

Flick visits the hotel to invite Hazel to dinner, meeting Hazel’s daughter Piper there. At the restaurant, Flick convinces Hazel to leave the escort business and become an integral part of Crispin’s schemes to make money from global catastrophe. The sexual tension between the women becomes overwhelming and they kiss. In a panic over the failing coup, Lennon arranges arms shipments overnight then flies out to intervene in person. The editorial Mia writes on the shadowy UK forces pushing the coup goes viral. It becomes clear that Jess is Jarrod’s boyfriend and the trio of Gen Z-ers share a house while working together to take down Lennon, Crispin and all of their amoral associates.