Following the events of Hitman, Agent 47 embarks on a mission to find the mysterious "Shadow Client" for Providence, a secretive organization that controls most of the world's affairs. Agent 47's employer the International Contract Agency (ICA) has formed an uneasy alliance with Providence to stop the Shadow Client, whose actions are causing global panic, and Agent 47 has agreed to help in return for Providence revealing his past. He begins by killilng Alma Reynard, one of the Shadow Client's top lieutenants, in her home in New Zealand. He also kills tech moguls and Providence defectors Robert and Sierra Knox in Miami. Meanwhile, the Providence leaders become angry at the killings of several CEOs and business tycoons associated with the group. The Shadow Client is formally identified as Lucas Grey, a former head of security for Providence who, from his hideout in Central Europe, pursues his own plans with hacktivist Olivia Hall, intending to recruit Agent 47 to help in his quest to destroy Providence.


In a village in Colombia, Agent 47 assassinates Rico Delgado, Jorge Franco and Andrea Martinez, leaders of a drugs cartel who have been using their smuggling network and business connections to aid Grey and his militia. Agent 47's handler Diana Burnwood reports the mission's success to Providence while visiting her family's graves in Surrey, England. Flashbacks reveal she watched as her parents were killed by a car bomb. Grey and his team blow up the headquarters of Ether Corporation in Johannesburg, kill its CEO, and steal an unidentified item, and his militia use a hostage situation to publicly reveal Providence's existence. In Mumbai, Agent 47 dismantles the militia's eastern cell by identifying and eliminating Grey's top lieutenant Wazir Kale and two of his associates, who were responsible for the death of another Providence CEO.