Isabel Wright is a dream analyst, and is uniquely talented in analyzing lucid dreaming. Ellis Cutler works for a highly-classified government agency with an interest in the potential value of lucid dreaming. He is also one of Isabel's anonymous subjects. Heading to California to make contact with her for his agency, he pushes his own fantasies out of his mind, determined to maintain a professional relationship with the woman who reads his dreams. But when they meet, the dream, or is it a nightmare, becomes real enough to touch.