A series of unexplained deaths has the entire city of Albany on edge. Otherwise normal, healthy people have been discovered dead in their beds with expressions of extreme terror or agony on their faces. The only common link between all the victims is that each one is seventeen years old. At the same time, a strange rumor has been circulating that if someone falls in their dreams, and doesn't wake up before landing, they'll die in real life. When Karsten's best friend, neighbor, and classmate Perdita is discovered dead in her bed one morning, Karsten's world is plunged into a sleep-like daze, dark and empty. How could someone like Perdita die? Suddenly, Karsten's childhood friend Milly appears that night. Mysterious, intelligent, arrogant... and thought to have committed suicide three years ago. From the very night that he meets her again, Karsten begins having horrific nightmares. Are these the dreams mentioned in those whispered rumors...? The series of strange deaths continues, with more and more teenagers discovered dead when the sun rises. Rumors abound, the paranoia rises to a fever pitch... and Karsten continues to have his nightmares. What Karsten thought was a brief stumble in his life may turn out to be only the initial moments of a terrible plunge into the depths of his deepest fears.