Gaige's curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers a bookstore on an abandoned street where no bookstore should be.

He steps inside and is immediately enthralled by its antiquarian sights and smells. But one book in particular calls to him. It isn't long before he gets a bad feeling about it, but it's already too late. The store's aged bookseller gives him no alternative: once he touches the book, it's his--whether he wants it or not. It's bought and paid for and there are no returns.

The book leads Gaige on a horrific descent into the unknown. As he falls into the depths of its pages, he loses blocks of time, and his friends become trapped inside ancient cellars with seemingly no means of escape. Gaige soon learns that the ancient bookseller is a notorious serial killer from previous century, and fears that he has fallen into a predicament from which he may not escape.

When all seems lost, he finds the one person he can turn to for help--Mael, a sweet boy also trapped inside the book who didn't fall for the bookseller's tricks.

Together, they race against time to protect Gaige from joining a long string of boys who vanished without a trace inside the Book of Dreams.