Billy Costello and his wife, Thalia, are a young couple, in their mid-twenties, living in Sacramento, California, in the 1850’s. A physician, Dr. Dulcamara, has been experimenting with the new medical treatment known as hypnosis, hoping that his research will advance medical treatment.

Billy and Thalia readily agreed to help Dr. Dulcamara with his earlier experiments and now they are helping with more advanced sessions.

Prior to being hypnotized, each intensely studies a person from ancient history or a special event that took place in earlier times. Each then is hypnotized, and while they are in Dreamland, they find themselves with the ancient person, or attending the special historical event. They are not visible to most of the people but they participate in all of the activities, much like any of us do while we have a special dream. Our dreams seem so real to us when we waken - Billy and Thalia experience the same effect as they waken from their hypnotic session.

The intense study that Billy and Thalia do prepares them for their participation and understanding of the ancient event where they find themselves. In their hypnotic dream, they are maids or servants or on-looker participants. This allows them to observe all of the details of the historical event as well as actually see (in their dream) the famous person of history.

In the first session, Billy finds himself watching Benjamin Franklin, as Franklin and his son fly the kite in the electrical thunderstorm. This is an experiment wherein Franklin is able to show that lightning and electricity are the same.

In her first session in Dreamland, Thalia finds herself in a small town in medieval France where Joan of Arc is being burned at the stake because of trumped-up religious and political reasons.

Billy soon finds himself in ancient Greece where Archimedes demonstrates the principles of the lever. He also demonstrates to his colleagues that the earth is round, not flat. He does this during an eclipse of the moon. Archimedes further demonstrates his special Archimedean Screw.

In another episode, Billy finds himself in colonial Boston, accompanying the patriots as they prepare and carry out the Boston Tea Party. This event results in the colonists dumping the chests of tea overboard from several ships.

Billy is present when Pope Gregory holds a meeting in which the Pope insists that the calendar should be changed. Local scientists show him and his advisors the importance of changing the calendar that has already gone eleven days out of whack.

When William, the Duke of Normandy, invades Britain in 1066, Billy is there, discussing the longbow with archers and the outcome of this battle near the town of Hastings. This battle resulted in the death of King Harold and the ascendancy of William to be king of England.

Billy is present when Galileo makes a newer version of the telescope and demonstrates it to his colleagues.

The defiance of King Henry VIII, and his expulsion of the Roman Catholic Church from England, brings about war with Spain. The Spanish king, supported by the Pope, sends a huge fleet of ships, called an Armada. to invade England. But, the native strength of the English people, led by Queen Elizabeth, Francis Drake and others, brings about a notable defeat of the Armada, and Billy is there to witness the events.

During the mid-1700’s, the noted music composer, Franz Joseph Haydn, finds a way to gently remind his patron that the orchestra players need to return home to their families. Billy helps in this adventure by being a person who copies the music that is used in this so-called “Farewell Symphony”.

The Battle of the Alamo in Texas, which took place only about twenty years before, finds Billy talking with some of the participants and following up with the Texan victory at the Battle of San Jacinto in which the rallying call was “Remember the Alamo”.

When Henry ascends the throne of England as King Henry the Eighth, he weds the widow of his brother. After a few years, she has produced no sons, so Henry wishes to annul the marriage. This causes all sorts of problems. Billy is present to witness the upheaval events.

Soon after Columbus’ voyage of discovery, Magellan set out to circumnavigate the globe. But he didn’t live to make the entire trip. During his stopover in the Philippines, he was killed in a battle with a native ruler named Lapu-Lapu. Billy is present to witness this stirring event.

In the eastern United States In the early 1800’s, there was a tremendous need for better transportation. New York State officials built a canal from Buffalo, at the western end of the state, to Albany at the eastern end. This canal met up with the Hudson River at Albany and boats continued on the Hudson River, south to New York City. This allowed for goods to be transported over the entire length of the two waterways, permitting an entry into the heartland of the young country, into the Great Lakes and reaching all the way to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Billy is there to watch the ceremony of marrying the water from Lake Erie with the water from the New York harbor an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean.

Each “dream” seems real to the participants thanks to their earlier, preparatory study of the persons and the events. They wake up truly believing that they were actually there.

It became common for Billy or Thalia to say: “I was there just as…”. It was frequently their first statement upon gaining consciousness.

Billy and Thalia both believe that these “Lessons in History” are the best way to study history. They want to have more of these “fly-on-the-wall” adventures and the doctor agrees. So, they begin to plan on having more sessions at a later date.

While this book is a work of fiction, most of the data such as places (towns and countries), times (dates), and participants (names of real people) are true-to-life, due to extensive research by the author.