Prince Jesper loves to play and isn't interested in anything else. By tradition, on his twenty-first birthday, he must announce which young lady he has chosen to marry. But the prince doesn't want to choose; instead, he would rather play chess, practise fencing or archery, sing and make merry all day. His parents, the emperor and empress, decide to send him to a school for nobles, hoping that he will meet a noble young lady and fall in love. Jesper attends Wiston University, where he meets noble ladies who flirt with him and noble young men who are jealous and annoyed with him. He also encounters Ida, the studious young daughter of the headmaster who seems impervious to his charms. Together they accidentally discover the Library of Mystory-along with a secret so big that it could alter their fates and the fate of the kingdom forever. In this fantasy novel, a playful prince and a young commoner attending university together unearth a mystery that will change their lives.