In a city called Koma, where 15 and 16-year-old's are tested and then taken away to be trained to be part of the P.J.O, a peace keeping organization owned by the government, a 16-year-old girl named Brielle, or Bri, gets a score higher than the test itself. The person who tested her is nice enough to change her scores so they say she scored standard and tells Bri to not tell anybody and to leave now. Bri can't help but tell her mother, and ask her what's going on. Her mother says that testing higher than the test is dangerous and to not tell anybody.
At the P.J.C training center on the edge of the city, the new recruits are trained harshly and mercilessly, all trying to become top of their class by the end of stage one. Bri makes many friends and enemies, one friend being a boy named Mylo, who she learns to trust so well, she tells him her secret about her scoring over. Mylo says that it is dangerous to do that because the president of the city hates people who are or are said to be stronger than her, and if someone scores over, they are sure to be stonger than her, and she will kill them..
Bri and Mylo devise a plan to escape to an old abandoned barn far off away from the city. But when Bri's rival, Luke, finds out about thier plan and tells the High Council, the five leaders of P.J.C. Bri and Mylo can't wait any longer, so they leave immediately, escaping on a passing train.