Ben and Toni live in the island state of Singapore where truth is fiction and fiction is truth. Ben is a copywriter, and Toni is a bank officer active with an opposition party that intends to contest the upcoming general elections. But the leaders of The Party that dominates the state are attempting to cling onto power and enact Plan Charlie which calls for the cancellation of the elections. In doing so, they are guided by an influential figure who sits on the board of the global conglomerate Golem & Traum; she in turn is under the influence of its mysterious leader called The Gewgaw Man who is under the control of an occult being. What follows is The Rising: an island-wide invasion by smombies—smartphone zombies—which is the impetus for a takeover of the state by The Party as all hell breaks loose.