Sash hates school, with its menacing teachers and stuck-up students. His father, Max, lost in his mysterious research, is too busy to notice. Everything changes when Sash finds a riddle in Max's study, revealing a quest for a magical bird. Fame awaits its captor, and Sash decides to track it down.

Verity, his sworn enemy, insists on helping ... whether he likes it or not. But beneath the suns of a dazzling new world, dangerous forces are also stalking the bird. What must Sash and Verity risk for the greatest prize of all? Friendship? Loyalty? Their lives?