In the Dream begins with Eric Torgersen's first published poem, written at nineteen, and culminates in his last at the time of publication, with its dream-speak title, "Baba Juga," and its moving and unsettling vision of his sister, dying of Alzheimer's. Many of the poems are monologues, most speaking of events in the author's life, but in the work, as he explains, "told by more interesting people." Their voices range from the hilarious ("I'm glad he [Bob Dylan] didn't really chase me") to the dead serious ("I'm tired of the killing we do to keep these houses").