When Flye Shannahan's intellectually snobbish parents decide that she isn't being challenged in middle school, she skips eighth grade and ends up as a freshman at New Hope High, a preppy suburban school in North Carolina. Her classmates are turning fifteen next month when she turned thirteen just last week. Flye is thrown into an endless power struggle for popularity, and she might not make it out-until she finds the Box. Part forgotten storage space, part safe refuge, the Box is a room in the basement where Flye can listen in on everything that's happening through the school, thanks to the air vents that carry sounds from all corners of the building. The Box gives Flye the upper hand over everyone in the school, but can she overcome the urge to join the mad dash to be popular? And when she overhears a harsh whisper that threatens to put the whole school in serious danger, what can a small, brainy thirteen-year-old do to save it?