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.

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 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.

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.