In this lyrical collection, Sonja Livingston weaves together strands of research and imagination to conjure figures from history, literature, legend, and personal memory. The result is a series of essays that highlight lives as varied, troubled, and spirited as America itself.

The book consists of what appears to be fifty-two rather bizarre dreams, but in reality, it is just one nightmare. In his dream, he can be literally anythingfrom a person to an in animate object. He feels he never has control of his destiny, and he is always in the midst of controversy or worse. His only escape from dreamland is to wake up and to put his sleepy experience behind him. He imagines he is being consoled by imaginary dream counselors. Are these people who visit him real or just fragments of his imagination? The reader will find the answer to this question at the conclusion of the book.