After returning several million dollars to an oil tycoon, British secret agent James Bond (PIERCE BROSNAN) is surprised to learn that his efforts only served as him being a courier for international terrorist, Renard (ROBERT CARLYLE), to kill the tycoon with a planted bomb.
It seems that several years ago Renard had kidnaped the tycoon's daughter, Elektra (SOPHIE MARCEAU), and was upset that the oil magnate and Bond's superior, M (JUDI DENCH), tried to free her in a botched rescue attempt. Nonetheless, the young woman escaped and upon her father's recent demise, has now inherited the family oil business. With her attempts at completing a competitive cross- country pipeline across Western Asia, M worries that many people, especially Renard, may want her dead.
Thus, she assigns Bond to shadow her, which he does along with saving and then eventually bedding her. Yet Bond isn't satisfied just to play her bodyguard, and thus sets out to figure out who's after her. His investigation leads him back to a former shady acquaintance, Valentin Zukovsky (ROBBIE COLTRANE), as well as introduce him to Christmas Jones (DENISE RICHARDS), a young and shapely nuclear physicist.
As Bond learns that Renard -- who can feel no pain due to a bullet lodged in his brain -- plans to steal a nuclear warhead to eliminate some oil competition, he begins to question Elektra's motives while trying to stop the villain and his efforts.