The ongoing global economic crisis threatens one and a half billion people who live in poverty. An effective World Bank is critical to reducing global poverty, but can it effectively tackle the challenge? In the first half of the 2000's, two Bank researchers sought to increase transperency and accountability within an institution mired in bureaucracy and secrecy. What unfolds is a dramatic story of how the World Bank really operates, the power it has to change people's lives and how it can be successful in the current crisis.