Hugh Swann is a freshman at Oxford with a bright future ahead of him, a brilliant girlfriend, and a sound head on his shoulders. Until a series of haunting dreams bring him closer to a troubled woman, Elizabeth and her murky past. As Hugo's dreams turn into nightmares, he must ask if they are fiction or reality. And, if Elizabeth is all she seems.

Hugo Swann, the son of an eminent psychiatrist, is a shy social misfit in his first term at Oxford University. With a new girlfriend and new experiences, things are looking up until a series of strange dreams start plaguing him. When his father offers psychiatric treatment to a mysterious woman with a troubled past, Hugo's dreams begin to worsen. Before long, their paths will cross, but as Hugo tries to help the woman, he finds himself in need of psychiatric assessment. As catastrophe looms, it's down to Alice, Hugo's brilliant girlfriend, to find the answers. But will he want to learn the truth of what she discovers? Dreams: when the reality is worse than a nightmare.