Taking charge of your dreams while you’re sleeping is called lucid dreaming. Doing it while you’re awake is called growing up. Sylvia is having trouble with both.

For one thing, she’s not growing. She’s fourteen but stuck with the body of an eight-year-old. This might not be such a problem if Grandpa hadn’t promised to buy her the horse she’s always wanted, but only when she grows as tall as his shoulder. Plus, the kids at school call her Pygmy Chimp. Her dad treats her like a baby. Her mom is an overly-involved, recently graduated psychoanalyst who sees sex and pathology everywhere she looks.

At first Sylvia is comforted by night-time dreams of a mysterious horsewoman. But when Sylvia accidentally breaks the rules of lucid dreaming, uninvited guests begin to appear.