Uptown. If Gabrielle Levy had to describe her daughter Arianna in one thousand words, her first words would be brilliant and unstoppable--the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Gabrielle will do anything to make sure her daughter's future is wrapped up with a bow, preferably in Princeton colors. She's even hired one of New York's top SAT tutors, Randall Miller. When she learns that another top student at prestigious Valhalla High might be applying to Princeton as well, she knows there's trouble. In her mind, Mandela Robertson has one uncontestable edge over Arianna: race. Diversity, rather. To secure her daughter's place at Princeton, Gabrielle formulates a plan that will change her daughter's life--and her own--in ways she never dreamed.

Downtown. SAT tutor extraordinaire Randall Miller isn't feeling so extraordinary. His job at the tutoring company is bringing him down, his novel won't write itself, and The One isn't anywhere in sight. At least he has a steady client at Valhalla, Arianna Levy. When another Valhalla student, Legion Cartwright, falls into Randall's lap, he can't believe his luck. But Legion needs more than SAT prep--his father let him play the stock market with his college tuition and he lost everything. After meeting Randall--and seeing the way he looks at him--he knows this tutor might be the solution to all his problems if he plays things right. As Randall finds himself falling for Legion, his novel finally starts to take shape around their impossible relationship. When Legion raises the stakes, demanding the ultimate sacrifice, Randall can't refuse. If nothing else, he needs to know how his novel ends.

In an astonishing, challenging debut, Eric Sasson fashions a kaleidoscopic narrative of refracted perspectives that converge into a portrait of a flawed system and those it would break or mold.