Ten years after the invasion of Naboo, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of a renegade Jedi named Count Dooku, thousands of solar systems threaten to break away from the Galactic Republic. When an assassination attempt is made on Senator Padm� Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, twenty-year-old Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker is assigned to protect her. In the course of his mission, Anakin discovers his love for Padm� as well as his own darker side. Soon, Anakin, Padm�, and Obi-Wan Kenobi are drawn into the heart of the Separatist movement and the beginning of the Clone Wars.