Age 13 and a handful of sarcastic trouble, Martin Anderson ends up at Edgeview Alternative School after a lifetime of getting kicked out of schools and organizations. At Edgeview, he continues his habit of insulting teachers and other authority figures. He makes friends among the students, though, and he becomes convinced they aren’t bad kids but simply have uncontrolled superpowers. It turns out he’s right, and he helps them learn to manage those abilities. In the process, Martin learns that he, too, has a strange power: His is to intuit other people’s deepest sorrows and yearnings. He also realizes that years of being bullied by his own father trained him to use his power to push people away when they confront him.

Martin’s efforts to help his friends also prepare him to help himself, and his attendance at Edgeview shifts from a hellish duty to an opportunity to grow into his best self and realize the full possibilities available to him.

Torchie is Philip Grieg, the fire-starting roommate of Martin. Friendly but defensive, Torchie always insists they’re never his fault. Martin discovers that Torchie can cause flames just by touching things, and he helps his roomie learn to control this ability so that it becomes useful instead of merely dangerous.