When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he`s not alone. He`s surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade - a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don`t know why or how they came to be there - or what`s happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything - even the Grievers, half-machine, half-animal horror that patrol its corridors, to try and find out.