The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country #1 begins by posing the question "Do you remember your dreams?" to college-girl Madison Flynn. It is the sole text in the dominant, top panel on the issue's first page, hovering atop a rendering of the sun setting over New York City and the world descending into twilight. It isn't an uncommon question. Typically, one interprets it to mean, "When you wake up in the morning, do you recall what you dreamt of during the night?" Flynn does not take it this way. Instead, Flynn tells the man asking this question of her at a party, the man she will take back to the dorm room she inhabits alone for the night, about recurring dreams she had as a child of a house made of candy and gaining the acceptance of her middle and high school bullies. And then she recalls happier dreams, built on the idea that she was special, that the future was bright, that great things were ahead.