12-year-old Princess Kassie leads a blissful life in the kingdom of Chess Mountain. She adores her parents (the goddess queen Caïssa, and the god of war, Mars) and delights in playing chess with her friend Dimitri, a fellow young god. As a coach for the chesslings (the darling young chess pieces), Kassie's life feels complete. But when Dimitri is kidnapped and her parents are blamed, a war is declared. Kassie is whisked to Earth, a destination she always hoped to avoid. While there with her guide Maurice, a trusted knight, she must complete a mission to attain her own goddess title to strengthen her kingdom. Living undercover as a student in a chess-loving NYC classroom, she is shocked to find that mortals are different than what she’d been taught, and more like herself than she ever knew. Before she knows it, she is championing her brave classmates to overcome life’s problems via the principles of chess. But when a chess bully menaces her friends and kingdom rebels draw near, Kassie struggles to be true to her beliefs without sacrificing herself and endangering her kingdom back home.