In the new book, Strieber returns to his youth to recount a summer he spent in a " secret school" in the woods near his childhood home. It was there that he learned the nine lessons that forever changed his life and prepared him for the chilling events narrated in his previous three books. His recollection was triggered by his first encounter in 1985, but for years still remained half-hidden in shadow. Only now has he begun to reconstruct these childhood summers spent in secret adventure, these summers that planted the seeds for his adult encounters with alien visitors. Jumping between a child's-eye view and an adults hindsight, Strieber deftly weaves an adventure that stretches across decades, landing (or rather, lifting off) at the place his new life started when he met extraterrestrials. Strieber fans everywhere will not want to miss his haunting odyssey into the past and the startling new insights these memories provide about the meanings of his alien encounters and the future destiny of mankind.