In the middle of the night, in a house in suburban Minneapolis, intruders murder Luke Ellis's parents and load him into a black SUV. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there's no window. Other kids with special talents--telekinesis and telepathy--are also here. Some, like Luke, are in Front Half, while others graduated to Back Half. In this most sinister of institutions, the director and her staff attempt to extract from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.