When fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling skyscrapers in New York City, he is given two choices: juvenile detention or leaving the country. Peak's famous mountaineering father Joshua Wood, absent for most of Peak's life since his mom remarried, has reappeared and is offering to take Peak away with him until things calm down. Suddenly, Peak finds himself preparing to climb Mount Everest. If Josh's Peak Experience company can get him to the summit before his fifteenth birthday, Peak will be famous as the youngest person to ever summit Everest. But Josh's company will be famous, too, which is plenty enough reason for him to fly all the way to NYC for Peak's hearing. Even if his father's motives are selfish, Peak can't say no to the opportunity. With the help of fellow young climber Sun-Jo and a mysterious, hard-core, probably-prophetic monk named Zopa, Peak faces his most challenging climb yet--and possibly his last.