Reynie Muldoon is a clever, talented, and well-read young man, which makes him a bit of an outcast at the orphanage where he lives. He's outgrown the schooling they offer, and the man in charge refuses to let him go to an advanced school, so he has a tutor-- and he and Miss Perumal spend their mornings reading the newspaper together and conversing in Tamil, which she is teaching him. One morning, they spot an ad in the paper addressed to talented children and offering "special opportunities." They are both excited by this, so Reynie goes to take the first in a series of tests to see what this mysterious opportunity might be. Reynie is the only child from his group to make it through the first round of testing, and then there are some odd circumstances surrounding the second test-- a girl who lost her pencil down the grate and who claims to have the answers to the test; after the very difficult test, which turns out to be a kind of puzzle (Reynie figures it out in part because he follows the directions carefully), Reynie meets two other children who have been through this series of tests, and when they compare notes Reynie figures out that the lost pencil and offers of cheating are also a strange part of this test. Finally, after a few more strange tests, they meet Mr. Benedict and are told why he recruited the four of them (the fourth lagged behind), and what it is he hopes they will help them with-- which is where they adventure really begins.
