Intellectually precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater escapes the boredom of daily life by re-reading a series of beloved fantasy novels set in an enchanted land called Fillory. Like everybody else, he assumes that magic isn't real -- until he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. But something is missing. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he thought...

"Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can't hide from his past, and it's not long before it comes looking for him. Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and...