Picking up from events in The Girl Who Would Be Death, Evangeline Arbogast and the murderous Echo are hooked on heroin and dealing with severe withdrawal symptoms. While Vangie is out scoring more drugs, Echo is accosted by gangsters and knocked out. While unconscious and dreaming, Echo passes away and, in accordance with the laws of the realm, is allowed to remain in The Dreaming instead of passing on to the sunless lands.

In the Dreaming, Echo is reincarnated as both a nightmare and a woman which greatly disorients her. As she wanders about the dreaming, she picks a fight with the Corinthian, and then attempts to seek shelter with Abel, though she is rebuffed, She eventually encounters Goldie who, upon seeing Echo's resemblence to Lucien's dead lover Christina Weston, takes her to meet Lucien.

Lucien is furious that Echo (who has already tried to hurt Matthew) would not only show herself in the dreaming, but also disguise herself as his lost Christina, and viciously attacks her. Though Lucien manages to pin Echo and strangle her, Goldie knocks him out and helps Echo escape.

Distraught, and still not entirely convinced that these events are truly happening, Echo manages to return to the waking world where she discovers that Vangie has slit her wrists next to Echo's former body. Matthew and the Corinthian vow to follow Echo to the waking world and kill her, leading directly into the Fox and Hounds story arc.