Lucas Fortune is left on the steps of a children's home before his first birthday. He grows up under the corrupt, watchful eye of the Home's staff, doing all the normal things a young boy does. One night he and a group of children all experience the same dream and wake up with newfound abilities and powers. They must come to terms with these changes, some revel in it, whilst others turn nasty. Old childhood rivalries develop into something sinister and destructive, until eventually they must leave the home and face the big world outside the gates. Guided by the voice of a mysterious entity who talks only in dreams, and pursued by some of his former schoolmates as well as the agents of a sinister agency who seem to know a lot about him, Lucas must lead his friends along a trail of clues towards the ultimate truth behind their experience, a revelation somehow connected to Lucas's unknown father, an ancient intelligence and a terrifying force which will threaten everyone on the planet...