1960s Omaha teems with the brood of the Catholic city, families bred to pack pews, to turn elections, to fill battalions. Wesley Grassford rides to school in a Stingray bicycle gang, feeds the dog, and plays maul-the-man, kids swarming and grappling for a worn leather football until the church bells ring six o'clock and time for dinner. Unknown to the boy, or to the larger community, a group of local men are slipping into a private and unspoken pathology. Their sleeps are barren and dreamless, their outlooks listless and lethargic. Many slip quietly into coma. 2020s America trades in the social medium of dreams, earning fortunes for those who hold the harness. Zachary Sergeant, a low-ranking engineer, makes a startling and unsanctioned discovery as the plague threatens to return, this time on a larger scale. Story lines converge in pursuit of its secrets, exploring the nature of dreams and memory, and the onset of enduring sleep.