Neel Unnikrishnan has a real shot at winning the National Spelling Bee. This young Indian-American can crush tricky words like CHIAROSCURIST and AUTOCHTHONOUS, but life as a teenager is far more challenging. His mother expects nothing less than perfection and his father has his own secret bets riding on Neel's success. Neel is laser-focused, but then enters Meher Khan - brilliant, unpredictable and impossible to ignore. Meher is Neel's biggest rival, but also the one person who truly understands him. She gets under his skin and keeps him on his toes, yet he can't seem to stay away. As the competition heats up and family tensions rise, Neel's world starts to slip away from his grip. Winning should be everything. So why does it suddenly feel like there's more at stake than just a trophy? Neel is about to learn that some words are easier to spell than to live by, and he must figure out what really matters before he gets BEE-WITCHED for good.