Aiden Anderson is leading a more or less ordinary life when he receives the opportunity of a lifetime- to leave his world behind for a year to study at a school in a realm where elves, ogres, dwarves, angels and the like all dwell and live together. He accepts, and as he forms bonds with his schoolmates and hones his talents, old and new, he is confronted with a series of awful truths about the world he's in, and has to fight for its own good.