Nomadic beach resident and perennial degree chaser Thomas Davidson is preparing for exams when he finds a message in a bottle that releases Mirabelle, a Wishbringer who grants him a wish before returning to drift upon the sea. He uses the power of that wish to secretly avert disasters and help people in need while wandering from college to college and beach to beach. People connected to him begin to die, murdered in brutal and horrifying ways for reasons he does not understand. His series of anonymous good deeds has caught the attention of those who believe the balance between good and evil is being shifted in the wrong direction, as well as those who seek to use him as a living fulcrum for the world's balance of power.