The pixie Opal Koboi is believed to be in a coma inside an asylum, but is actually faking it to avoid incarceration by the Lower Elements Police after her failed rebellion and attempt of world domination in Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident.

To ensure she is secure in her cell, the LEP has her under 24-hour surveillance, has DNA tests done every 4 hours, plants a tracker and tranquilizer known as a seeker-sleeper in her arm, and keeps her in a net trapped with monitoring pads.

Koboi manages to escape regardless with help from the pixie Brill Brothers, filling the cell and fooling the security with a brain dead clone otherwise identical to herself.

This has caused his personality and conscience to revert to that of an amoral villain, and with the help of Butler he conducts a clever heist to steal the famed painting The Fairy Thief directly before being attacked.

After a desperate battle against the troll hordes on a model of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, they are rescued by former criminal Mulch Diggums and Butler.

The message on the cover of the US publication, barely decipherable, reads "Opal wants revenge", it is faintly repeated several times on the sides of the tube.

[3] The School Library Journal wrote that "the prose is clunky", however, it continued to say that the "creativity carry the narrative through the tight spots and impossible situations.