Ava prepares to leave Topeka and travel to find her missing sister Emmy at a facility called the Poppy Fields.

A tornado strands Ava, Sasha, and Ray at the Topeka airport and cancels all available flights out.

Sasha announces at the rental-car counter that she and Ava need a driver, and Ray reluctantly agrees to share his car.

All three travelers discover they are all headed to the same destination, the Poppy Fields.

Sasha tells Ava and Ray that her fiancé Dean was struck and killed by a drunk driver just before their wedding.

Ray confesses that he and Johnny had a bitter argument before Johnny sought treatment at the Poppy Fields and died.

The group picks up Sky, an 18-year-old hitchhiker, and offers her a ride to Sedona, Arizona.

Ava admits to Sasha and Ray that her sister is Ellis Jones, the founder of the Poppy Fields.

Ray and Sasha feel initially betrayed by Ava's secret but come to understand and forgive her.

The group drops Sky off in Sedona, Arizona, and continues toward the Poppy Fields together.

Sasha tells Ray and Ava at the Poppy Fields entrance that she has changed her mind and no longer wants the treatment.

Ava tells the security guard at the entrance that she is Ellis's sister, and the two are brought directly to Ellis.

Ellis admits she underwent the sleep treatment after missing Granny Mae's death and woke up with emotional moderation as a side effect.

Ray asks Ellis about Johnny, then surprises everyone by requesting to undergo the sleep treatment himself.

Each member of the group stays in touch after parting ways, and their bond from the journey proves lasting.

Ava, Sasha, and Ray are all traveling to a mysterious grief facility called the Poppy Fields when a tornado grounds their flights and forces them to road-trip together. Over the course of their journey, each person slowly reveals why they are headed there: Ava to find her estranged sister, Sasha to seek an experimental sleep treatment after losing her fiancé, and Ray to find answers about his brother Johnny's death. The group picks up a young hitchhiker named Sky, and their shared experiences of grief draw them unexpectedly close. A major turning point arrives when Ava admits that her sister is Ellis Jones, the scientist who founded the Poppy Fields, forcing the group to navigate betrayal and forgiveness. By the time they arrive at the facility, Sasha has decided she no longer needs the treatment, while Ava confronts Ellis and uncovers the shocking truth behind their estrangement. Ray's journey ends where Johnny's began, as he chooses to undergo the sleep treatment himself to honor his late brother.

Thousands of people in red pajamas are shown sleeping in hospital beds at a large facility in a southern desert.

Ray fails a firefighter training exercise because his grief over Johnny has left him unable to call for help.

Sasha and Ava meet in the tornado shelter, and Sasha tells Ava she is traveling to the Poppy Fields for grief treatment.

Sky meets a girl named Clara at the Topeka airport and secures a ride with Clara's family to Oklahoma City.

Ellis is introduced living full-time at the Poppy Fields, quietly consumed by guilt over a sleeper named Johnny who died of an aneurysm.

Ellis and her team discuss expansion, but Ellis firmly opposes Flynn's proposal to charge fees for the treatment.

Sasha reveals that the Poppy Fields already rejected her application and she plans to appeal the decision in person.

A rainstorm forces the group to stop at a dirty motel, where Sasha considers whether to open up about Dean.

Sky takes a hot-air-balloon ride over New Mexico and realizes her personal problems are tiny compared to the vast world.

Sky suggests teaching Ava how to drive, and Ava blows a tire on the rental car after picking up too much speed.

Ellis is assaulted outside the Harper Foundation by a grieving man whose wife experienced emotional moderation after her sleep treatment.

News of Ellis's assault spreads and draws wider public attention to the Stop the Sleep protest movement.

Sky plays a piano piece Dean used to perform, using sheet music she found in Sasha's bag, flooding Sasha with memories.

Ray discovers a wall of photographs near the Poppy Fields sleeping area and learns they depict the people the sleepers lost.

After his sleep treatment, Ray still has flashes of memory of Johnny but resolves to honor his brother's memory going forward.

While the main characters travel toward the Poppy Fields, a parallel story unfolds within the facility itself, where Ellis obsesses over a troubling side effect that leaves some patients emotionally numb toward the people they love. The group's road trip is shaped by smaller but significant moments, from a tornado shelter meeting to a young hitchhiker's perspective-shifting hot-air-balloon ride over New Mexico. Sasha's full story gradually emerges, including the detail that the Poppy Fields already rejected her application before she decided to show up and appeal in person. Back at the facility, Ellis faces a growing protest movement and is physically assaulted outside her biggest donor's building by a man whose wife was damaged by the treatment's side effect. A casual piano performance by Sky at a roadside bar becomes an emotionally devastating moment for Sasha, while Ray's visit to the facility uncovers a wall of photographs honouring the people the sleepers have lost. After finally undergoing the treatment, Ray emerges with painful but manageable memories of Johnny and a renewed sense of purpose.

Behind-the-scenes moments and hidden details.

Granny Mae encourages young Ava to try drawing to manage her anxiety, sparking a lifelong artistic passion and career.

Ray helps strangers reach the tornado shelter and then reflects that a different kind of tornado has torn through his own life.

A newspaper article reveals that Ellis Jones runs the Poppy Fields and that 25% of sleepers experience emotional deadening as a side effect.

Ellis spends her birthday alone, reflecting that she knowingly chose career over family when she left Kansas for college.

Ava reflects after Granny Mae's death that she has built a full life but her estranged sister remains the only missing piece.

Ava wonders whether keeping her sister's identity secret from Sasha and Ray counts as lying, but decides to wait a little longer.

Ray reflects while driving that his anger at the Poppy Fields may be guilt about how he treated Johnny turned outward.

Ava casts the deciding vote to detour through Sedona, privately hoping the extra time will delay her confrontation with Ellis.

Ellis agrees to move forward with expanding the Poppy Fields to a second facility despite lingering concerns about the side effect.

Ellis travels to Los Angeles for a donor meeting and recognizes one of the Stop the Sleep protestors standing outside the building.

On a solo birthday hike, Sasha encounters a bachelorette party and decides she wants to move through each stage of grief fully.

Sky tells the group about a near-overdose she witnessed, and Ray realizes the paramedic who responded was likely his brother Johnny.

Sasha speaks with bar owner Donna, who tells her that grief is part of love, cementing Sasha's decision to forgo treatment.

Ava confronts Ellis about abandoning their grandmother and their relationship, and Ellis admits she chose work over family.

Ellis decides to step away from running the Poppy Fields and devote herself entirely to researching and eliminating the side effect.

The emotional core of the novel lies in a series of quiet but decisive moments in which each character comes to understand what grief is truly costing them. For Ava, the journey begins with Granny Mae's early encouragement and the slow realization that her estrangement from Ellis is the last unresolved wound in her life. For Ray, healing requires an honest confrontation with the fact that his anger at the Poppy Fields has always been a mask for guilt about how he treated Johnny. Sasha's turning point arrives on a birthday hike, where an encounter with a bachelorette party forces her to face her own grief directly and choose a different path than she had planned. Ellis undergoes her own reckoning as she recognizes the human cost of her side effect, survives a confrontation with a furious former patient's family member, and finally faces her sister's long-delayed accusation. The novel's resolution comes not through one grand gesture but through a series of small, courageous commitments: Ava asking to start over, Ellis agreeing to try, and each person choosing how to carry grief forward.