'Cockroach' Karl Copley, a crackhead crim with a small brain and a big mouth, convinces his former best friend Richie McMullan - now a squeaky-clean senior cop - he can help rescue Barbara 'Barbie' Konstantinou, a high school crush apparently held for ransom by bikers in New Zealand's sunny north.

Problems pile up quickly, though, when Barbie doesn't want to go back to her effed-up family and it emerges there's much more at stake than a simple kidnapping.

Over two wild weeks of love/hate hangouts and rescue attempts, from Whāngarei to Kaitaia to the Bay of Islands, we find out if Crooked Karl has what it takes to solve the mystery and bring back Barbie.