To everyone, sixteen-year-old Dolan is born in the wrong era. He embraces his grandfather’s way of life, order and punctuality down to a science and wears his old bronze compass daily. But when his father's illness forces his family to move into the city, Dolan can no longer hide behind his old life. He ventures out into the city and stumbles into a dangerous game he cannot escape from.

 

A simple card trick from a little girl downtown induces dreams where he’s a player in a Mafia-like game with a murderous Host. Every round, the players must vote on which of them holds the demon oni card as a thirteen-hour clock counts down. Whoever they vote on gets killed in the dream. The first to go gets a knife to the neck and the next, disemboweled. Every dream after becomes more twisted than the last. When Dolan sees the murders happening on the news, he realizes that his morbid nightmares are more than just dreams. Appearances are deceiving as Dolan begins to suspect everyone around him, including himself.

 

As Dolan and his friends start piecing together the clues from his dreams, he must figure out which player is the real oni before he’s the next victim.