Have you ever wondered what is left out of our childhood bedtime stories? Could it really be the utopia that our narrator promised us? Or just another nightmare? Sixteen-year-old Nicholas Smith is about to face those questions. After the mysterious death of his uncle, a sinister woman shows up at his funeral with an ominous warning: His uncle's death wasn't an accident, and Nicholas is next. He pushes aside the strange encounter and heads off to spend the summer with his grandmother. But on the way there, he's attacked by a dark being, unleashing a power within himself he didn't know he had. Whisked away to another world, Nicholas slowly recognizes the beings, people, and settings as familiar-they are the embodiment of the very stories his uncle told him as a child. But there are others interested in his unique powers-for good or evil, Nicholas is unsure. And to make matters more complicated, he finds himself entangled in a love triangle between Astro, a young and talented soldier with whom he has a past, and Val, a beautiful young girl with secrets of her own. Thrust into a new world, new life, and with strange burgeoning powers he barely understands, Nicholas must fight for what is right and ultimately make the biggest sacrifice.