Barrett opens the Introduction with a quote from poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." The book describes how trauma effects the content of dreams, differentiating between the typical effects of adult vs. childhood trauma and between one-time traumas vs. those that are experienced repeatedly. It discusses what dreaming can tell us about trauma and how dreamwork may be employed in psychotherapy to aid the recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).