NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is a fictional tale that introduces the reader to some special people who are able to physically access the inner mind. Victoria (Vic) McQueen has a special gift. With the aid of her Raleigh Tuff Burner bicycle, she is able as a child to access the Shorter Way Bridge and take it to find objects or people regardless of how far away they are. She doesn't share this ability with others, knowing that most likely they wouldn't believe her anyway as the Shorter Way Bridge had long since collapsed into the river below. For Vic, her unique power continues after her childhood, appearing when she needs it to get to some place or to somebody. In addition to introducing readers to Vic, the story includes a monster named Charles Manx, who has evil paranormal powers.

Charles Manx is a serial kidnapper. He uses his 1938 Rolls-Royce to access his own in-scape, which he calls Christmasland. When he takes kidnapped children there, the car helps him to siphon off their life force. He grows younger with each victim, healing faster than nature would allow. He discards the children in Christmasland when he is done. He often takes their parents as well, and those he gives to Bing Partridge, a simple minded man who wants nothing more than to be taken to Christmasland with Manx. In return, however, Manx asks him to prove himself by helping him to 'rescue' these children he takes. Bing is charged with dealing with the parents that get caught up as well. He takes them to his home, dubbed the 'House of Sleep' by Manx, and after amusing himself with them by keeping them under the influence of a gas called Sevroflurane, he kills them and buries them in his basement.

When Vic runs away from home after her parents split up, she uses her bridge to get to Charles Manx's home, called the Sleigh House. Surrounded by fir trees festooned with Christmas ornaments, the forest is an ongoing tribute to the season of Christmas. Vic almost loses her life to Manx, but she escapes by climbing a laundry chute to the upper floor. Then, she makes it to the highway where she is picked up by Lou Carmody. He not only takes her to the nearest phone to call 911, but he helps her to cope with the assault and subsequent arrest of Manx. As has always been the case, Vic doesn't tell the authorities about the Shorter Way Bridge that took her to Manx's Sleigh House. It's easier to let them run with the assumption that he kidnapped her and took her across state lines. In the struggle faced just before his arrest, he kills one man and is sentenced to life in prison for his combination of crimes of which the authorities actually knew very little.

Maggie Leigh, a librarian in Ohio, first told Vic about Manx. She is another special person with paranormal abilities. In a state of confusion Vic asks to learn about Maggie's gift. The bridge links her to Maggie who tells her that she belongs to a special group of people she calls 'creatives.' She is able to access not only the real world landscapes, but the in-scape of the mind as well. Of course, as there is balance to everything, there is also balance to her gift. For Vic, it is debilitating migraine headaches and fevers that wrack her body whenever she returns from using the bridge to go somewhere. Maggie's gift is being able to use Scrabble tiles to tell the future. By digging into what appears to be a bottomless bag of tiles, she is able to discern upcoming events, find people, and see glimpses of the future. Her balance is a stutter that gets worse the more she uses her tiles.

Though they never marry, Lou and Vicky have a child together named Wayne. Wayne is the pride and joy of his parents. With Manx safely locked in jail, it would seem that life would be fine, but Vic is somehow still linked to his in-scape, Christmasland. Vicky gets telephone calls only she can hear from children who are there, including Manx's own daughters, who threaten her and promise that her son Wayne will join them soon. For a long time, the threats are empty, especially when Manx slips into a decade long coma. However, when Manx's Rolls-Royce is sold at auction to Nathan Demeter and Nathan takes it upon himself to restore it, he inadvertently restores Manx's life force as well. Despite having physically died and gone through a partial autopsy, Manx is reanimated when Nathan takes the car out for its inaugural spin. He leaves the morgue and joins his former cohort and disciple Bing Partridge to begin taking children again. The first on his list is Wayne, Vicky's son. So, begins a battle between Manx and Vicky, during which Vicky uses her bridge to find and finally rescue her son. In the process, both Vicky and Maggie will give their lives. It will also cost Bing and Manx their lives as well. As all things make a return to balance, Wayne is home with his father.