Max Murphy thinks his mum and dad are weird. They're zoologists, so they're always flying off to different countries to study exotic creatures in their natural habitats. And, as if that didn't make life strange enough, Max has to live in his Uncle Herbert's house with his annoying twin sister, Molly, while their parents are away. Sometimes, the twins go with their parents on their travels.On one trip, Max develops a strange fever after he drinks from a stream in a village in Africa, and everything changes - especially his attitude to animals. When he's better, the village healer tells him he has special powers: he's now at one with the animals. But Max doesn't believe a word of it - not until the first time he begins to transform...Luckily, the effects never last more than a few hours, but that's plenty of time for Max to experience animal instincts first hand. And as if that didn't make life difficult enough, his parents' sinister colleague Preston Slynk knows all about Max, and is always trying to capture and perform tests on him. Slynk's miniature insect-robot spies are never far away. For a boy who wants nothing more than a challenging computer game and a chocolate bar, life is about to get a whole lot more complicated...