In Hargrove Settlement, nobody dreams.

Those few who do, like 12-year-old Aster Temple, are banished through a mysterious portal to an unknown fate or forced to flee into the dangerous wilderness lands. Aster is determined not to get caught, but then she begins having strange waking Dreams. Her only clue is a friendship with Kennedy Lake, which Aster abandoned when Kennedy's mother was exposed as a Dreamer.

In her efforts to figure out what is happening to her, Aster begins to learn the meaning of friendship, but her Dreams are only getting worse. And when a fugitive Dreamer returns to Hargrove, bent on revenge, Aster must choose whether to save herself or risk everything for a people who don't deserve her help.