A mysterious school operates in the Koselbruch mill: the one-eyed Master teaches magic to his twelve students, including fourteen-year-old Krabat, who arrives at the mill poor and orphaned. With his intelligence and diligence, Krabat soon stands out from the others, and over time he realizes what a toy of evil forces he and his eleven companions are. He tries to rebel, looks for and finds allies among the students, but the biggest help comes from the village in the person of a cantor girl, with whom Krabat falls in love. The thrilling, twist-filled novel is a poignant, heroic, eternal story of the clash between good and evil.