Eighty-year-old nisei Dan Yamada has suffered a catastrophic stroke and his grown children do their best to convince the hospital staff to help them pull the plug. Meanwhile, back in the 1940s, a young Yamada meets a girl whom he comforts, but can never understand. Both time periods move forward as the play progresses until Yamada finally finds forgiveness and perhaps regain a measure of innocence when past and present finally connect.

Ken Narasaki is an actor/writer and founding member of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, which is working in concert with the NAACP, the Latino Media Coalition, and Native Americans in Film and TV to help foster diversity on prime time television. Innocent When You Dream was developed in the David Henry Hwang Writer's Institute.