This is a tale of wizards, dragons, and shadows, played in an archipelago of imagined islands. The young boy Sparrowhawk becomes apprentice to a Master Wizard; but impatience to learn faster takes him far from home to Roke Island, where he enters the School for Wizards. As a student of magic, Sparrowhawk exceeds his years in accomplishment, but pride and jealousy drive the boy to try certain dangerous powers too soon. A terrible evil is let loose in the land.