Awake follows a man named Detective Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) who wakes up after a car accident. he learns that his wife, who was in the car with him, died. He tries to put everything together to find what is going on. However, after a few days, he finds that his wife is not dead, but that it was his son who died. Confused, Michael goes back to work as a detective trying to put things normal again. One moment he is talking to his wife about having another baby and then the next he is at a tennis match talking to his son's coach about how his son is dealing with the loss. All this time, he is trying to do the job he loves and thinking that he is going insane.

Detective Michael Britten?s two worlds spin out of control when his son Rex is kidnapped by an escaped convict, Cooper, a man Britten arrested 10 years ago. In his other reality, Hannah is upset that Britten cannot attend an event honoring their deceased son because he is tracking down a missing teenage boy. Clues from both worlds lead to a confrontation that calls Britten?s sanity into questioned.

Centers on Marine Sergeant Scott Brody, who returns home eight years after going missing in Iraq, and Carrie Anderson, a driven CIA officer who suspects he might be plotting an attack on America.