Bullied at school, ashamed of his parents, and tired of who he is, 12-year-old Joseph Ward is certain things are as bad as they can get. Until tragedy strikes and he finds himself locked up in St. Theodore's Academy for Wayward Children, a reform school overseen by a cruel and merciless headmaster.

Joseph has a secret gift, though. A gift that takes him to magical and terrifying worlds. His only hope of escape is through these places. But something unimaginable lurks within them. Something dangerous. Something hungry.