Denise Parker is a successful advertising executive. She has a Porsche, a stock portfolio and an apartment in one of the safe neighborhoods in San Francisco. If it weren't for a recurring nightmare she would look forward to an even better situation. The nightmare leads her to a past lives therapist, a cult leader, an ex-boyfriend and other characters who appear in her past lives. What it all means and who "Algapesh" is requires all of the novel to unravel this psychological Gordian knot.