Selfish teen Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is coerced into joining a government project in which psychics like him are trained to enter others' dreams. He starts learning to use his abilities to do good, but before long, a new official, Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), seizes control of the project. A writer (George Wendt) helps Alex uncover Blair's true motives, which involve assassination via dreams. Soon, only Alex and a beautiful scientist (Kate Capshaw) stand in the way of something terrible.