The story is set in the near future and follows a group of seven young teenagers from different countries who, having discovered they have extraordinary powers, find themselves attending a school run by aliens hidden in the Australian Outback.
In the early part of the twenty-first century Earth was visited by aliens from the Galactic Confederation. Thirteen years later these aliens reveal that they, and also some humans, have powers which in more primitive societies would be regarded as supernatural. These powers are known as 'The Ability'. People with the Ability make up the Navigator Guild who are the de facto rulers of the Galaxy.
Those rare teenagers with the Ability are chosen to become cadets attending Navigator School, where they are trained to develop and use their skills and finally become fully-fledged Navigators.