Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a most ingenious criminal mastermind, and heir to the Fowl family empire, a centuries-old clan of underworld figures and famous con artists. When Artemis kidnaps Holly Short, one of the Fairy People, to help him on his quest for gold, he takes on a Fairy world determined to rescue Holly.

Discovering a way to build a super-computer using stolen fairy technology, young criminal mastermind Artemis sets out to blackmail a Chicago businessman but runs into a trap that leaves Butler mortally injured.

Artemis has no memory of the fairy people and has returned to his unlawful ways. In Berlin, he is preparing to steal a famous Impressionist painting from a German bank. He doesn't know that his old rival, Opal, has escaped from prison by cloning herself. She's left her double behind in jail and, now free, is exacting her revenge on all those who put her there, including Artemis. Meanwhile in the lower elements, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrechon...