It's tough being a teenage Slayer. On the verge of failing her junior year thanks to the annoying Principal Snyder, who seems to be acting even stranger than usual lately, Buffy agrees to meet with a tutor ... one who may not have her best interests in mind. Not helping her studies is the fact that recently she's been exhausted, waking up each morning feeling more tired than she did the night before. To make matters worse, she's tasked with investigating the disappearance of a little girl who went missing hours before a child vampire surfaced in Sunnydale, accompanied by a wheelchair-bound male -- who matches the description of the blond-haired vampire known as Spike.

Fighting off exhaustion and uneasy at the prospect of staking a child vamp, Buffy learns that Principal Snyder is the target of a sleep deprivation spell that has taken over Sunnydale. Putting aside her fear that her tutor is out to get her, and hoping that the sleeping spell affects humans and demons alike, Buffy investigates Snyder's odd behaviour; following him to his childhood home where she discovers he has arranged to have his abusive mother banished to the demon dimension. Meanwhile Spike's flaky consort Drusilla, who has been playing mother figure to the child vampire, is learning how difficult it is to be a parent. As sleep takes hold of the citizens of Sunnydale, Buffy begins to realize that unless she breaks the spell soon, the nightmare is just beginning.