In the town of Castle Rock, Maine, Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken), a young schoolteacher, is in love with his colleague Sarah Bracknell. He is involved in a serious car accident that sends him into a coma. He awakes under the care of neurologist Dr. Sam Weizak and finds that five years have passed and that his girlfriend has since married and had a child. Johnny also discovers that he has the ability to learn a person's secrets (past, present, future) through making physical contact with them. As he touches a nurse's hand, he sees her daughter trapped in a fire and also realizes Dr. Weizak's mother, long thought dead from the war, is still alive. As news of his "gift" spreads, he is asked by the nearby sheriff (Tom Skerrit) for help with a series of killings but declines. Sarah visits h