Elena Ransom doesn't make friends easily and she doesn't adjust well to change. When she's forced, by law, to attend boarding school after her 13th birthday she absolutely doesn't want to go. Her only consolation is that her best friend, Austin, and their friend Pigg will join her there. Her new life at Grimsby School of the Republic is complex as she resists the process of making new friends, deals with a class bully, and struggles to adjust to her new course schedule. She's also constantly in trouble with the Drill Instructor during Basic Training. In addition to this, the school proves to be a mysterious place. Elena soon finds herself on an unexpected journey that will lead her, Austin, Pigg, and their new friends outside the safety of their home and illegally into the former United States of America where they will search for an artifact that will change their destinies.