In the past Johnny Smith as a child and Greg Stilson, the son of a Bible salesman, briefly meet and Johnny has a future vision of danger. In the present Johnny has a vision of a restaurant graduation party tragedy and warns his employer, the father of a student. Stilson, now a Senatorial candidate being backed by Rev. Purdy, comes to town after the tragedy and Johnny gets visions of catastrophe in Stilson's wake. Johnny and Sara get together while in flashback we see how Stilson has been a total bastard all of his life, and that Johnny came out of his coma just as Stilson was sworn in as state representative. When they meet at a rally Johnny shakes Stilson's hand and sees him as the source of catastrophe - Washington D.C. devastated by a nuclear holocaust.

Johnny must stop the release of a new anti-wrinkle cream based on his vision of it causing birth defects in the future.

After learning Stillson's congressional rival, a long-time incumbent is a war veteran with a dark secret. Johnny ponders whether the truth is more important than Stillson's defeat.

A wild old high school friend, Jason, comes to see Johnny seeking a vision of the future as he will be dying of a heart condition. Johnny sees him receiving a successful heart transplant and gives him the good news, but later gets a vision of Jason's sister Kate being killed in a driving accident and becoming the donor. Johnny later gets a vision of the other driver's license plate while Jason takes a turn for the worse, then sees a vision of him and Kate arguing which leads to her going out and getting in the accident. Johnny soon realizes even if he saves Kate and gets Jason a heart through Purdy's connections, someone else who would have received the heart will die. Johnny tracks down the drunk driver, Patrick Hanchin, and confronts him, but sees that even if Johnny stops him from killing Kate, he'll hit a school bus.

Johnny tries to determine who the mysterious hooded man in his visions are and aid him in the present, while determining more about what the future holds for him personally.