While working with the Australian Secret Service on a dangerous mission, teenaged spy Alex Rider uncovers information about his parents.

"Targeted by a hitman and under threat of his past being exposed by the media, Alex reluctantly turns to MI6. But their help doesn't come cheap: they need Alex to spy on the activities at a GM crop plant. There he spots Desmond McCain, a high profile charity organiser, who realises that Alex is on to him and the real plans for the money he's raising. Kidnapped and whisked off to Africa, Alex learns the full horror of McCain's plot: to create an epic...

Presented with an unexpected assignment, Alex Rider's greatest nemesis, Yassen Gregoravich, recalls his life and the path that led him to become an assassin while his one-time friend, Alex's uncle, became a spy.

Fourteen-year-old Alex faces more dangers in his work as a spy for the British organization MI6, this time joins forces with America's CIA to stop a man who has a nuclear weapon and a grudge against the world.