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Jozef's father died of tuberculosis contracted in the harsh conditions. His father was imprisoned and the family was later exiled to the bitterly cold Volgoda in Northern Russia. The injustices and atrocities in pre-Revolution Russia had made his family move several times across different countries.

Joseph Conrad, or Jozef Teodor Korzeniowski, was granted English citizenship in 1886 after he sought asylum. Verloc's family members who are completely unaware of his duplicity, are tragically drawn into the situation, as the bomb explosion has a far reaching impact on innocent people. Verloc is challenged by a high-ranking official of a foreign embassy to prove his commitment to the cause. The police have their suspicions but are yet to get clinching evidence. They also secretly print subversive literature and circulate it surreptitiously throughout the country. He and his group of shady friends are anarchists who seek to destroy the established government in England. The store which sells a variety of merchandise, including “dirty pictures” contraceptives, patent medicines, cheap stationery and the like is merely a front for his real activities.

Adolf Verloc is a lazy, indolent shopkeeper (who had “an air of having wallowed all day fully dressed in an unmade bed”) and owns a tiny establishment in a dingy back street in Soho.

In an uncannily prophetic plot, The Secret Agent portrays a sinister scheme to bomb the famous Greenwich Observatory in London. It deals with the over reaching influence of politics in everyday life, the sordid underbelly that lies beneath our civilization's sophisticated veneer, the strange persuasive power of anarchy, unbridled capitalism and its tragic consequences and the scourge of terrorism, exploitation and espionage. In this world of modern day spying, Joseph Conrad's spy story, The Secret Agent, is very pertinent.