Talented artists shouldn't be waiting tables, scraping by, and living mediocre lives. But that's exactly what art school graduate Wes Teague is doing. Then he wakes from a bizarre dream, haunted by the sense that his life isn't real. A harrowing truth presents itself--the real world lies in his dreams, not when he's wide awake. The dream world he enters each night is rich and vibrant. Chicago appears the same on the surface, but chaos runs rampant as gravity, physics, and other laws of nature become fluid, changing unexpectedly. There, Wes's parents, brother, and sister are strangers. His girlfriend Emily doesn't recognize him. Wes longs to return, to unlearn the truth about his dual reality. Wes would sacrifice almost anything to get back to blissful ignorance in a false world. But now he has feelings for the real Emily.