The world has stopped sleeping. Restless nights have grown into days of panic, delirium and, eventually, desperation. But few and far between, sleepers can still be found - a gift they quickly learn to hide. Matt Biggs is one of the sleepers. After six restless days and nights, Biggs wakes to find his wife gone. He stumbles out of the house in search of her to find a world awash with pandemonium. Sleep, it seems, is now the rarest and most precious commodity and there are those who would kill to have it.