In the previous book, Alex Rider, a teenage spy working for MI6, meets Yassen Gregorivich, a hired killer, who says to Alex that he knew his father and he should go to Venice and find Scorpia- it was his destiny. Alex travels to Venice, to find the truth about his parents, who died when he was just a baby. He finds out that his father was an assasin employed by a major criminal, known as Scorpia. Scorpia recruit Alex as an assasin for them, but he still does not know the truth about his parents.
