The novel deals with Ralph Roberts, a retired widower who begins to suffer from insomnia. As the condition worsens, he begins to see things that are 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. Roberts perceives other planes of reality and their influence upon the "real" world. He finds that his sweetheart, (later his second wife) Lois Chasse, is also a sufferer. They eventually discover that their insomnia has in fact been induced by the two little bald doctors to enable them to defeat the agents of the Crimson King.