Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider, reluctant M16 spy, is back at school trying to adapt to his new double life... and to double homework. But M16 have other plans for him. Investigations into the accidental deaths of two of the world's most powerful men have revealed just one link. Both had a son attending Point Blanc Academy - an exclusive school for rebellious rich kids, run by the sinister Dr Grief and set high on an isolated mountain peak in the French Alps. Armed only with a false ID and a new collection of brilliantly disguised gadgets, Alex must infiltrate the academy as a pupil and establish the truth about what is really happening there. Can he alert the world to what he discovers before it is too late?