It follows retired widower Ralph Roberts, whose increasing insomnia allows him to perceive auras and other hidden things, leading him to join a conflict between the forces of the Purpose and the Random.

Some months later, Ralph (now a widower) encounters Ed's wife Helen who has been badly beaten by her husband after having signed a pro-choice petition.

As his insomnia develops, he begins to see things invisible and intangible to others: colorful manifestations of life-force surrounding people (auras) and diminutive white-coated beings he calls "little bald doctors", based on their appearance.

Ralph and Lois encounter two bald doctors, calling themselves Clotho and Lachesis, who act with dignity and free people from life when it is "their time" to pass away.

Ralph and Lois learn of the "Crimson King," a shape-shifting higher-dimensional being who feeds on negative emotions and craves chaos to rule over.

Unable to intervene directly, Clotho and Lachesis, agents of the Purpose, gave Ralph and Lois insomnia to help them perceive, gain and even access other levels of reality so they can defeat Atropos.

With a small plane containing C-4 explosives, Ed intends to make a kamikaze attack on the civic center during Day's speech, killing her and everyone within.

Once released, Atropos torments Ralph with a vision of a car accident in the near future that will take the life of Helen's young daughter Natalie.

Returning to his proper place and reality, Ralph and Lois fall in love and get married, gradually forgetting their adventures with the little bald doctors.