Nimrod Vale is convinced he is the unluckiest twelve-year-old alive. Life is hard when your name doubles as an insult, but he finds it is even worse when your mom dies. Nim is forced to stay with his only living relative, his Aunt Holly in Portland, Oregon. After settling in, he is ready to get lost in a good book, except his bad luck gets in the way when he tips a cup of steaming coffee onto his tablet. While his most prized possession is being repaired, Nim grows anxious to start writing one of his own stories, so his aunt sends him to the attic in search of his grandpa's treasured fountain pen.

An accidental discovery reveals a desolate world that he thought only existed on the pages of his paper. Nim prefers to pretend it never happened, and hide away in the school library. There he meets a loner named Pepper who gives him no choice but to be his friend, but when she discovers what he has been hiding, she forces his hand. Nim then must choose to step up and help the fictional war-torn land or turn his back on the people who need him most.