Largo Winch is a 28-year-old adventurer, drifting around the world, searching for himself. Along the way he's picked up with Simon Ovrannaz, an ex-thief he met in a Turkish prison. The two are best friends...almost brothers. Then one day, Largo's life is changed forever when he learns that Nerio Winch, the step-father he barely knew, is dead. Nerio is an Aristotle Onassis-like billionaire who secretly adopted Largo as a child, but never took him in. Instead, he paid a family in Luxembourg to raise him, then sent him to a monastery as a teenager to be educated. Nerio paid the bills, and that was pretty much the extent of their relationship. These last few years, they barely saw each other. Now Nerio has committed suicide because he was dying of a brain tumor...and, incredibly, has left his vast fortune and control of Group W, his multi-national corporate empire, to Largo. Largo is overwhelmed by the responsibility of this sudden inheritance. The board of directors at Group W despise him, thinking him unworthy and incompetent. Then Largo receives an astonishing video recorded by his step-father just before his death. On it, Nerio reveals that he was once a member of a mysterious organization called The Adriatic Commission, a secret conspiracy of billionaires and politicians who work to control the economic and political destiny of the world for their own ends. For years they have tried to kill Nerio for leaving. In the video Nerio says that if he is dead, despite what the official cause of death may be, it is because they have finally succeeded. Nerio ends by charging Largo with using Group W to seek out and destroy The Commission and uncover the names of its secret members. Eventually Largo discovers another bit of amazing information. Nerio was not his step-father at all, but his biological parent. He kept Largo's existence a secret to protect him from The Commission, which would have surely used the son against the father. And so Largo faces a series of enormous challenges. He must learn to run one of the world's biggest corporations, all the while being opposed and undermined at every turn by his own board of directors. They are led by Michel Cardignac, a charming, scheming, ruthless executive who will do whatever he can to see Largo ousted and himself at the head of Group W. Largo must also follow his father's wishes and try to expose and destroy The Adriatic Commission. And since The Commission is determined to gain control of Group W, they are always shadowing him, always waiting for an opportunity to pounce and destroy him. But Largo is an adventurer at heart, not a businessman. And so, at every opportunity, he bolts the boardroom and sets off in search of excitement. But he doesn't go alone. He's assisted by Joy Arden, a beautiful ex-CIA agent who used to work for Group W's security under Nerio, and Georgi Kerensky, a former KGB agent who left Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. His biggest ally inside Group W is John Sullivan, head of the Group W legal department and a member of the board of directors. He was Nerio's best friend, and swore to do all he could to help Largo navigate the treacherous waters of Nerio's empire.
