Griffin O'Connor is completely normal in all respects - except that he can instantly teleport to any place he has visited before. When he was five, he accidentally "jumped." Since then, his life has never been the same. A group of men is out to kill him, and he and his parents move around a lot. He learns to control his jumps. One day, when he was nine, he flinched away from a bully at school - all the way home. That night, some men came to his house. They murdered his parents, but he jumped away. These men could sense whenever he jumped within a certain radius of him. Griffin is rescued by Sam and Consuelo, two hispanics who search for people stranded in the desert. They didn't turn him in, so Griffin lives with them for a while. After returning to his flat and having it blown up, Griffin is taken to Mexico to live with Alejandra, Consuelo's cousin. Griffin is happy for a few years, but then the group of people found him because he had fillings and they used his name. The group tracked him, but he escaped and they didn't know about Alejandra. Then, Griffin decides to live on his own, so as not to put others in danger. He takes an abandoned mine in the desert as his home. Griffin buys a generator and a lot of things needed to survive, and he lives there after blowing up the entrance, so only he can get in or out. Then, Griffin is happy for a while, jumping all over the world and sketching places so he can jump there again. All the while, he kept in touch with Sam and Consuelo. Then, the group of men, who Griffin now knows are called "Paladins," find and kill Sam and Consuelo. After relocating Alejandra and overcoming his grief, he decides to continue his lifestyle. In France, he meets an American, E.V. Kelson. He and E.V. fall in love over the next few months. One day, they went to a dance. Unfortunately, E.V. had been threatened by the Paladins to kill Griffin or her parents would die. Griffin talked her out of it and saved her mother and brother, but her father was already dead. Mortified, Griffin severs ties with E.V. Then, Griffin lures some Paladins to his "Hole" and traps them in it. Once they were in, he opens some propane tanks and lights a few candles and jumps out. All but one of the Paladins die. Griffin learned from one man that they were lead by a man named Roland, but nothing else.