Director Alan J. Pakula does the best anyone can with this complicated tale of what happens when the dream state and the waking state are confused and intermingled. While at home alone one day, Kathy Gardner (Kristy McNichol) defends herself against an intruder by stabbing him in the back. Now when she tries to sleep she keeps on having nightmares about the incident. Enter Michael Hansen (Ben Masters) a dream researcher who postulates that the actions in a dream state can be channeled into real but controlled actions. These real actions then harmlessly release tension or anger or whatever is at issue. The problem is that his research is not thoroughly tested, and Kathy may not be the best subject to use as a guinea pig.