After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the "bird kids," who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose.
After a short stay with an FBI agent who gives them a chance to attend school and live a normal life, the six genetically altered, winged youths head toward Florida and Max's ultimate destiny -- to save the world, whether she wants to or not.
The time has come for Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel to face their ultimate enemy and, despite many obstacles, try to save the world from a sinister plan to re-engineer a select population into a scientifically superior master race.
While on a mission to Antarctica to save the world from global warming, fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride and the other members of the Flock--a band of genetically modified children who can fly--are pursued by their creator, the Uber-Director, who wants to auction them off to the highest bidder.
When millions of fish start dying off the coast of Hawaii and something is destroying hundreds of ships, the government enlists the Flock--a band of genetically modified children who can fly--to help get to the bottom of the disaster before it is too late.
When Max and the Flock discover an unscrupulous scientist who is experimenting on humans in an effort to "improve" the human race, they decide that they must try to stop him, in spite of Angel's prediction about Fang dying.
Heartbroken after her best friend and soul mate, Fang, leaves her flock, Maximum Ride begins to believe the evil scientists trying to convince her she needs to save the world, and that Dylan, the newest member of her flock, is her perfect mate.
Max, Fang, and Dylan prepare for the ultimate confrontation as a mysterious group threatens to reduce the world's population by ninety-nine percent by killing all those who are not enhanced.