Unsuccessful temp Peter Papapanos sleepwalks non-stop along the streets of London for several days until he finds the thing that has ruined his life.
Near future. One recession ends. Another begins. Life is just about tolerable for Peter Papapanos, unsuccessful temp by day and artist by night, until the Harlem Corporation uses him as a guinea pig. Without informing him, they place product placements in his dreams using a brainwave machine called the ‘Message Facilitator’– turning him into a shopaholic. Unable to earn enough to support his habit, he ends up a criminal.
While mugging someone, he is captured by a group of guerrilla journalists. They reveal the cause of his metamorphosis and tell him that the next victim will be the rest of the world if he doesn’t help them track down the ‘Facilitator’.
Tutored in ‘Lucid Dreaming’ and hypnotized, Peter, in a series of dreams, rejects products that would supposedly save his life. With each refusal, the dreamt scene disintegrates until all there is left is a blinding whiteness and the stench of burnt toast. His physical body (hypnotically released from the paralysis of sleep) follows the trail of the smell.
For days, the journalists accompany him through the streets of London to smooth his hazardous path and ring strangers' doorbells so he can walk through their homes and find the ‘Facilitator’.