 International Rescue is a secret organization in the latter 21st century, utilizing revolutionary high-technology machinery tailored to rescue people trapped in extraordinarily dangerous situations. Its founder is Jeff Tracy, a billionaire former astronaut whose investments in aviation and technology have seeded him with the necessary means to create his rescue organization, based on a mountainous island in the South Pacific. Widowed, Jeff leads his five sons - Scott, the eldest and field commander for rescues; John, second eldest who usually mans IR s early warning satellite; Virgil, a musician and artist who is the team s workhorse; Gordon, jocular and an expert aquanaut; Alan, the youngest and most impetuous. The Tracy family is aided by Jeff s manservant Kyrano and his daughter Tin-Tin, and IR has a grid of agents around the world, usually led by wealthy Briton Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and her manservant Aloysios Parker, a Cockney ex-con who has gone straight, but whose skills and knowledge of criminal elements allow IR to infiltrate potentially dangerous situations. IR jealously guards its secret base, as its technology can be used to destroy life if it falls into the wrong hands - and determined to acquire their secrets and sell their technology to the highest bidder is a Malaysian criminal known only as The Hood, a master of disguise who is brother to Kyrano and who possesses mysterious and powerful hypnotic ability.