Harry is certainly not your typical American teenager. Rather, he embodies the "alienated youth"—isolated at school, profoundly strange, and anxious to the verge of paranoia. Yet a random incident triggers Harry to begin displaying what seem to be psychic abilities—though he disbelieves in them and lacks conscious control over them. Nevertheless, other sinister forces are active, ones that do believe in Harry and try to exploit him in ways that are menacing and terrifying.