Through its depiction of the relationship between dreams and reality, the novel explores the idea of parallel universes nested within one another, reveals the good and evil in human nature and how they transform, and ultimately reaches an awakening.
Lu Yuan, a middle manager in the internet industry; Chen An, a bankrupt businessman; Su Jian, an emergency-room doctor; and Zhao Xiaoman, an illustrator, happen to discover that they keep having the same continuous, shared strange dream. While asleep, their consciousnesses project into a parallel universe, where they correspond respectively to musician Lu Xing, the powerful Chen Xiao, the trapped Su Yao, and the painter Xiaoman, who watches from the sidelines.
The boundaries between the two worlds keep dissolving. The emotions, injuries, and even malice of their mirrored selves spill across dimensions and strike back at reality, bringing the threat of death with them. To prevent a tragedy about to erupt at a concert in the parallel universe, Lu Yuan risks falling asleep with himself as the anchor. He then joins forces with his mirrored self, Lu Xing, in the gap between dimensions to sever the bond of consciousness linking the two worlds.
When the calamity ends, the four carry the scars of memories from another world as they confront the darkness within and find reconciliation and new beginnings in their ordinary lives.
