On a bleak island beloved by smugglers, the Childs children shelter from their pursuers and mourn the loss of both their mother and their adopted sister, Carrie, last seen vanishing into the horizon. But they have little time to recover, as their would-be captors are determined not to let their prey slip through their fingers again. While their father, Thornton, desperately tries to hold on to his role as premier of the World Environmental Parliament and see through the world-saving measures he and wife, Rose, pioneered, Aunt Violet – who has more than a few secrets of her own – must keep a band of curious and determined children safe from the menacing forces that hound them – and try to find out the truth about her missing sister.

What does the mysterious Zoetics organisation have to do with Rose’s disappearance? What link does Aunt Violet have to the increasingly rare masked giant bees who have been unleashed upon her family? And who is the mysterious young man who has caught Poppy’s eye?

Join the Childs family for an action-packed adventure across land and sea, and across the world, with sharks, pigeons (and half-pigeons), death-defying surfing, espionage, private detectives, corrupt politicians and masked giant bees.