It was supposed to be the greatest piece of magic ever: A mortal capturing Death. But something goes wrong and instead of Death, Dream is trapped for 80 years on the mortal plane.

Once he escapes, Dream must retrieve his tools which are his bag of sand which he retrives from Constantine old girlfriend. His gets his mask from Lucifer in Hell which will cause other events to happen in later volumes and fianlly he gets his ruby which was found by John Dee aka Doctor Destiny which bring on the "24 hours" scene which is what this book is known for where he controls these people in the restaurant fully among other things. Since Doctor Destiny warped it so much he thought if he destroyed the ruby it would kill Dream but actually in destroying he. Dream got his full power back. In the final issue we meet Death who is the exact opposite of what you expect the personification of death to be.

Preludes & Nocturnes collects the first story arc of Neil Gaiman's landmark series The Sandman.

In these early adventures, Dream crossed into the mainstream DC universe more than he ever would again as we catch glimpses of John Constantine, Mister Miracle and the Martian Manhunter.

Collected Editions

• The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes

Non-U.S. Editions

• The Sandman. Pesochniy chelovek. Kniga 1. Prelyudii i noktyurny (Russia)