"I stayed up all night finishing it. The yarn scintillated." — Ray Bradbury

Jan Palmer, the unwilling president of a Seattle steamship company, secretly yearns to break free of his corporate responsibilities. However, his fortunes take an abrupt change when Professor Frobish, a meddling academic, breaks the seal on an old Arabian copper jar Jan has inherited and releases a terrifying Jinn, Zongri. The Jinn promptly slays Frobish with one slash of his scimitar and curses Jan with "Eternal Wakefulness" before vanishing. When the police arrive, it is Jan who is found by the blood-stained corpse and arrested for murder.

This is just the beginning of Jan's troubles. On Earth, he is locked in a prison cell awaiting trial. But every time he falls asleep, the curse strikes and he turns into Tiger, a swashbuckling rogue living in the strange world of the Jinn, where humans rank below slaves and the evil Zongri roams unfettered. And Jan Palmer, wresting with his two lives, not daring to sleep for fear of the consequences, faces danger and death at every turn.