A series of strange occurrences lead Buffy and her friends to discover that their worst nightmares have literally become reality.

Buffy returns from summer vacation sporting an attitude and suffers from recurring nightmares involving the Master. Meanwhile, the Anointed One and his followers plot their revenge.

When Buffy lapses into a catatonic state, Willow uses magic to find out why; a tug-of-war erupts between Glory and Ben over Dawn's ultimate fate.

After being stung by a demon, Buffy finds herself shifting back and forth between the Sunnydale she knows and a psych ward where she is told the last six years have been an elaborate hallucination. Struggling to make sense of either reality, she must decide which to believe.