An average Wednesday night gets turned upside down when Cate inexplicably finds herself whisked to The Village, a way station for accidental time travelers. And she's not there alone. Stranded amongst countless others struggling to grasp that the year is 2043, she meets Angus Danann, a handsome 19-year-old boy from Ireland. They are magnetically drawn to each other from the beginning, although Cate tries to suppress her feelings. But then Angus tells her about an intriguing Irish myth involving a goddess of dreams and the man who loves her. They both recognize themselves in the legend, and admit to having independent yet eerily coincidental experiences. It becomes clear that Angus and Cate are destined to be at The Village together, if only to figure out how to help the other "rifters" back to their own time. As the two of them struggle through one harrowing situation after another, they attract the attention of General Lyons, the stern overseer of The Village. He suspects the rising toll of incidents associated with Cate and Angus aren't happening by chance. With their lives at risk, Angus is forced to reveal a secret that changes the game completely-for all of them. If they give General Lyons what he wants, they get to go home. But if they succeed at their task, Cate and Angus doom themselves to being stranded in vastly different times, separated from one another forever.