That's what Tria concludes when she arrives at the Lesley Simonton School for the Magically Gifted and finds its buildings run-down and its small faculty oddly ineffectual.

Despite that conclusion, Tria soon learns that her fellow students have real and dangerous magical abilities. She must discover her own powers and wield them to cope with her amoral, shape-changing roommate and to defeat Oryon Brew, a highly gifted student who aims to take over the school. Tria accepts the challenge to rescue those whom Oryon, in his greed for dominance, sends into the dread Dire Realms. Oryon's willingness to draw on evil sources to increase his power gives him an advantage over Tria, who struggles with the question of how to apply ethical and moral standards to the life or death situations into which she is cast. Her inadvertent creation of alternate selves further complicates that effort until she and her duplicates discover that death can prove an unexpected ally.

In A School for Sorcery you will thrill to the lethal perils Tria faces in her conflict with Oryon, and with her you will discover the truth about the school.