A teen haunted by dreams discovers that he has special powers, revealing that superheroes are hidden among us every day.

Adam is an ordinary 16-year-old who lives on an apple farm and has extraordinary powers. All his life he has been haunted by dreams that leave him exhausted and confused. When the memory of a long-forgotten experience comes back to him, tying him to a boy named Jamie's perilous escape from fire, Adam's reaction is dramatic and immediate. He faints.

Adam learns what he thought were dreams are actual experiences. Adam has a special power which enables him to help others who are in some sort of danger. He jumps into their bodies and becomes them, feeling their fear and their pain. He helps them perform the brave acts that they thought they couldn't do. The people Adam helps don't know that he has helped them. All they know is that they have done something brave. They feel like heroes.

Adam is initially excited about his new power, but complications arise. Jamie, the boy in the fire, suddenly reappears in his life, now with new problems. In addition, Adam gets involved with a boy who is kidnapped by his dangerous stepfather, a girl, who is cruelly bullied by the "mean girls" at her high school, and an actor with crippling stage-fright. In his attempts to use his power to help them, Adam is supported by his cousin and best friend Chris, his world-weary aunt Rose, and a wise family friend, Deputy Sam.

Hero Maker is a story of fathers and sons, of family and friends, of bravery and decency, and apple pie.