Deborah is 33 years old, her husband just left her, her  son is dead. With nothing left to live for she tries to take her own life, but fails. Seeking help Deborah ends up visiting the enigmatic Doctor Vanilla, a therapist who specialises in suicide cases. However Doctor Vanilla with his strange manner and terrible scar across his face, is not all that he seems. As part of her therapy he insists she keep a dream journal claiming that it will unlock her subconscious mind.

What Deborah doesn’t realise is that her soul, Grace, was catapulted out of her body the day she tried to take her own life, and has been left helplessly wandering the earth trying to find her way back to Deborah ever since. During her travels Grace meets Peter, another lost soul, and together they try to help each other find their way back to their bodies. It is only when Deborah sleeps, through the world of dreams that Grace can try to find her. While Deborah is awake, all she can do is wait.

Meanwhile with Doctor Vanilla’s behaviour grows increasingly erratic in their therapy sessions, Deborah begins to feel that he may have an ulterior motive for seeing her. She confides in another one of his patients, Luke, and they share experiences of his unorthodox methods and talk about how they can find out what he might be up to. However when Luke confesses to Deborah that she keeps appearing in his own dreams, Deborah becomes even more confused. As their relationship deepens they realise their dreams are becoming strangely similar, and when Doctor Vanilla prescribes them with the same medication they decide they must find out what is going on. They break into his office and learn the horrifying truth -that Doctor Vanilla is trying to steal their souls.

They learn that in fact Doctor Vanilla has been alive for centuries having discovered that if he can catch peoples souls before they find their way back to their bodies he will live all the years that they should have done. The process for doing this is  unbelievably cruel, the souls, having to live inside a foreign body, end up desperate and miserable, and the bodies who do not get their souls back will eventually become crazed and will try to kill themselves again.

It is then a race against time for Luke and Deborah to figure out how to find their souls before Doctor Vanilla does. Now they understand the existence of their souls they can only assume that the similarity of their dreams must mean that their souls are connected and are somehow working together. As the world of reality begins to collide with that of dreams they realise their time is running out. Will Luke and Deborah manage to find their souls before Doctor Vanilla captures them? If not the consequences are worse then anyone could have thought possible.