The fictional Oliver Stone is alienated from the stultifying American nation in which he lives, and, abandoning his parents and his Ivy League education for Vietnam, he encounters a hell far more brutal than he could have ever imagined - a world of barroom whores, psychedelic drugs, and killing fields of indescribable proportions.

His head torn apart, his emotions sundered, he begins an epic voyage that will lead him through the Merchant Marine, an unceremonious return to American soil, and a flight into madness south of the border into Mexico. A Child's Night Dream is a visit into the unconscious mind, a work that celebrates the power of dreams, propelling us to the brink of reality and then steering us back to calmer waters.