Who decides what music defines a generation or which war gets funded? Who determines high fashion? Who gets to choose which dusty African village thrives and which suffers famine and genocide?

For centuries, the world’s wealthiest have sent their children to an elite boarding school known as The Academy to ensure continued control over global events. This year, The Academy offered its first scholarship to Peter Foster, a 17 year old from the blue-collar town nearby. Before Peter can get his bearings in this world of unimaginable wealth, sexual gamesmanship and obscene entitlement, he uncovers information about the mysterious and violent disappearance of a recent student — information everyone, even the teachers, is desperate to cover up. As the forces of Light and Dark continue their age-old dance of influence and manipulation, The Academy students fight to run their parents' empires, and to consolidate wealth and influence at any cost. Peter soon realizes he is up against forces that operate far outside his reality, and he'll have to risk everything, even his life, to expose the truth … even if his discoveries upend the fragile balance of global power.