Failed author, Henry Riddick, created one novel that was torn to shreds by the critics, and is working on a second novel that focuses on a serial killer and a detective's quest to catch him.As luck would have it, Henry bumps into a literary giant who he idolizes, Coralline Thomson, and asks if she would read over his work and give him tips. To his surprise, she agrees. After a couple of meetings, she gives him a little vial of liquid and tells him to drink it. He does so, vomits, hallucinates, and blacks out. When he wakes, he finds himself in a strange place. He sees Coralline, who explains to him that he is literally inside his own story. His job is to fraternize with all the characters to get to know them better, so they become more fleshed out in his story. While he's doing this, his body in real life is on autopilot: simply eating, drinking water, sleeping, and writing.Much to Coralline's chagrin, Henry ends up falling in love with one of the characters. To make matters trickier, he finds out that she is destined in the novel to be a victim of the serial killer. Henry must decide whether he should save this woman, which would ruin the story and cause future heartache and possible insanity for himself, or let a woman die for whom, although fictional, the love he feels is very real. He not only needs to decide whether he should save her, but also whether he can save her.