Stephen is fifteen when the nightmares begin. The dream is always the same: a crying baby, a wooden ladder, a house built in the branches, fire everywhere. Night after night, the fantastic images haunt him. More chilling than the dream itself, though, is the fact that this is the very same nightmare that haunted Stephen's brother, Marcus?the dream that drove Marcus to run away. Now Stephen is the age his brother was when he left, and he wonders what it all means. Determined not to run from the truth, Stephen steels himself for a journey of remarkable discovery that he hopes will eventually lead him to the truth about the past and, ultimately, about himself.