When Alexis Spanarkel awakens from a six-month-long coma, her first words are "Emily Lied." A brain anomaly induces vivid, yet structured, dreams in which she becomes a dream detective in search of the mysterious Emily. In dreamstate, she reads the headline, "Prosecution Witness, Emily Trout, Presents Damaging Testimony," from a 1977 Morehead City, N.C., newspaper and she is off to the Crystal Coast. There she enlists the help of retiree James Lattimore, who was the lead detective on the murder case thirty-eight years ago; and a Beaufort police officer, Dex Moorefield, with whom she has a "summer beach" romance. By manipulating her dreams, Alexis relives events leading up to the murder of an academy headmaster's wife, whose body was never found; and uses her dream sleuthing in real time to help solve the mystery and possibly clear the wrongfully convicted husband.