After his younger brother's accident--one more event in a long list of awful life events--Caleb Tosh's mom walks out on the family. Sick of it all, Caleb retreats into the virtual-reality game he plays obsessively, The Boneyard. With everything in his real life so awful, Caleb's only happiness comes from that game, and before he knows it, his reality and virtual reality seem to become the same thing in his quest to Ascend and become Worthy.