Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts - telepathy, telekinesis - for concentrated effect. Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He's just a regular 12-year-old, except he's not just smart, he's super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use... Far away in a small town in South Carolina, former cop Tim Jamieson has taken a job working for the local sheriff. He's basically just walking the beat. But he's about to take on the biggest case of his career. Back in the Institute's downtrodden playground and corridors where posters advertise 'just another day in paradise', Luke, his friend Kalisha and the other kids are in no doubt that they are prisoners, not guests. And there is no hope of escape. But great events can turn on small hinges and Luke is about to team up with a new, even younger recruit, Avery Dixon, whose ability to read minds is off the scale. While the Institute may want to harness their powers for covert ends, the combined intelligence of Luke and Avery is beyond anything that even those who run the experiments - even the infamous Mrs Sigsby - suspect.
Dypt i skogen ligger det et anlegg hvor barn som har blitt bortført fra over hele USA sitter innelåst. På Instituttet utsettes de for tester og eksperimenter med formål om å kombinere gavene de er utstyrt med: telepati og telekinese. Den siste rekrutten er Luke Ellis, en tolvåring som er ekstremt intelligent. I tillegg har han en annen gave Instituttet planlegger å utnytte. Barna føler at de ikke har noe håp om å unnslippe, men Luke slår seg sammen med en yngre gutt, Avery Dixon, som kan lese tanker. Luke og Avery kombinert er langt mer intelligente og dyktige enn noen kan drømme om.
