Nine-year-old Louis Drax is a problem child: bright, precocious, deceitful and dangerously accident-prone. When he falls off a cliff during a picnic, the accident seems almost predestined. In a renowned coma clinic, a specialist tries to coax Louis back to consciousness. But the boy defies medical logic, startling the doctor out of his safe preconceptions, and drawing him inexorably into the dark heart of Louis' buried world. Only Louis holds the key to the mystery surrounding his fall --- and he can't communicate. Or can he?