Pierce Brosnan is a British spy banished to Panama after a series of indiscretions. Trying to win himself back into favour, he latches on to tailor Geoffrey Rush, whose wife works for the government. Rush, reluctantly blackmailed into providing intelligence, offers Brosnan increasingly lurid stories which, embellished again and sent to London, create a political incident that begins to spiral out of control in John Boorman's mordantly black comedy.