Cherub Mission 1 - The Recruit

James lives with his mom and younger sister. The kids at school give him a hard time because his mom is way overweight. His mom runs a crime ring, so James is not hurting for money. James' stepfather comes over often to get cash from his mom. This latest time, he got mom drunk. That messed with her medications and killed her.

James ended up in an orphanage. His sister went with her dad. James was able to extract all the cash his mom had been hiding from her crimes. He starts hanging out with the wrong crowd at school. James is already in trouble to injuring a girl who teased him in his previous school, as well as a teacher that tried to restrain him. His new bad friends talk him into trying to steal some beer. In the end, they turn on him and get him arrested.

Little does James know that the Cherub organization has been watching him. They invite him to join their band of young spies. Boot camp is very tough. James teams up with a girl who failed boot camp previously, so she has a great advantage. James must push through learning to swim very fast. Somehow he makes it through boot camp, and with his partner, passes the final exam.

James gets invited onto a mission with him swim coach, who is years older than him. They infiltrate a group of supposed terrorists who are thought to be planning an attack against leaders of the oil industry. James needs to put his training to work to spy on the group. Turns out there are terrorists amongst them, but the intel was wrong on how they planned to kill the oil leaders.