Nancy, Kris, Quentin, Jesse, and Dean all live on Elm Street. At night they're all having the same dream -- of the same man, wearing a tattered red and green striped sweater, a beaten fedora half-concealing a disfigured face, and a gardener's glove with knives for fingers. And they're all hearing the same frightening voice...

One by one he terrorizes them within the curved walls of their dreams, where the rules are his and the only way out is to wake up.

But when one of their number dies a violent death, they soon realize that what happens in their dreams happens for real, and the only way to stay alive is to stay awake. Turning to each other, the four surviving friends try to uncover how they became part of this dark fairy tale, hunted by this dark man. Functioning on little to no sleep, they struggle to understand why them, why now, and what their parents aren't telling them.

Buried in their past is a debt that has just come due, and to save themselves, they will have to plunge themselves into the mind of the most twisted nightmare of all... Freddy Krueger.