While visiting his mother at her secluded Waldport cabin, an English teacher is awoken in the night by screams. Something gigantic is heaving itself against the rickety front door, relentlessly pounding and scratching—and shrieking his name. The hideous creature seems to know everything about the man, and takes special interest in his wife's deteriorating health.

On the other side of the world, a bleary-eyed detective works late, desperate to avoid the recurring dream of his fiancée's murder. But when a bloodied child stumbles into the Pine Rest Police Department and collapses, the detective finds himself facing his worst nightmare.

In the Devil's Dreams is the story of three broken people and the boy who links them. The lives and nightmares of the characters are elegantly interwoven, and the story is revealed through multiple points of view.