Four European literary critics form a group at a conference, united by their shared obsession with the reclusive author Benno von Archimboldi.

The critics visit Archimboldi's publisher Mrs. Bubis, who provides almost no useful information about the author's identity or whereabouts.

A Mexican contact tells the critics that someone matching Archimboldi's description was recently seen traveling toward Santa Teresa.

Three critics travel to Santa Teresa but fail to find any trace of Archimboldi despite searching hotels and universities.

Liz Norton sends Pelletier and Espinoza an email revealing she is in love with Morini, ending their romantic relationships.

Lola abandons Amalfitano and Rosa to travel to a mental healthcare facility in search of a poet she is obsessed with.

Amalfitano accepts a teaching position at the University of Santa Teresa and moves there with his daughter Rosa.

Oscar Fate is reassigned to cover a boxing match in Santa Teresa after his magazine's sports correspondent is stabbed to death.

Fate meets journalist Guadalupe Roncal, who offers to bring him along to interview the main suspect in the murders.

Amalfitano gives Rosa money and entrusts her to Fate, sending her out of Santa Teresa to safety.

The first murdered woman is discovered in Santa Teresa, beginning a years-long epidemic of unsolved femicide.

Epifanio links Klaus Haas to a murder victim and has him arrested as the prime suspect in the killings.

Haas holds a press conference naming the son of a wealthy businessman as the true murderer behind the killings.

Hans Reiter invents the pseudonym Benno von Archimboldi while renting a typewriter in postwar Cologne.

Lotte recognizes scenes from her childhood in an Archimboldi novel and contacts the publisher, leading to a reunion with her long-lost brother.

A group of European literary critics builds careers and relationships around the mysterious author Benno von Archimboldi, eventually following a tip to the Mexican border city of Santa Teresa. Their search fails, but the city is engulfed in a wave of femicide that predates their arrival by years. A Chilean professor named Amalfitano lives in Santa Teresa with his daughter Rosa, haunted by his wife's abandonment and increasingly worried for Rosa's safety. An American journalist named Oscar Fate arrives to cover a boxing match and is drawn into the orbit of the murders and the main suspect, Klaus Haas. Amalfitano entrusts Rosa to Fate, who helps her flee the city while also visiting Haas in prison. The final part of the novel reveals that Archimboldi is Hans Reiter, whose sister Lotte discovers his true identity through one of his novels, completing the long arc of the critics' failed search.

The headline events driving the search for Archimboldi and the murders in Santa Teresa.

Espinoza viciously beats a Pakistani taxi driver who insulted Liz Norton, and the group flees the scene in the man's taxi.

Morini visits the artist Edwin Johns at a Swiss mental healthcare facility and directly asks why he severed his own hand.

Mexican writer Rodolfo Alatorre tells the critics that a friend spent hours driving a man matching Archimboldi's description around Mexico City.

Liz Norton sleeps with both Pelletier and Espinoza together in her hotel room during the critics' stay in Santa Teresa.

Lola arrives at a mental healthcare facility to visit the poet she loves but is denied entry by the staff.

Lola returns to Amalfitano after years of wandering and reveals she has contracted AIDS and will likely die soon.

Amalfitano hangs a geometry book on the clothesline outside his home to observe how nature interacts with its pages.

Fate interviews former Black Panther Barry Seaman in Detroit before being redirected to cover a boxing match in Mexico.

Fate meets Rosa Amalfitano for the first time at the Santa Teresa boxing match and becomes immediately smitten with her.

Fate punches a drug dealer named Corona and pulls Rosa away from a dangerous situation at Charly Cruz's house.

Inspector Martínez begins a cautious romantic affair with Elvira Campos, the older director of the Santa Teresa mental healthcare facility.

A man confesses to being the Penitent who vandalized churches, but Martínez remains firmly convinced the real culprit is still free.

American sheriff Harry Magaña arrives in Santa Teresa to investigate the murder of a young woman from his hometown.

Five gang members are accused of murders linked to Haas to explain killings that continued after his imprisonment began.

Lotte receives word that her son Klaus has been arrested in Mexico and resolves to travel there to help him.

Behind the main plot events, a series of deeply personal moments define the lives of each character across the novel's five parts. Espinoza's unprovoked violence toward a taxi driver, Morini's visit to a self-mutilating artist, and the tip from a young Mexican writer all reveal the critics' contradictions and limitations. Amalfitano's lonely life is shaped by Lola's abandonment and her eventual return with a terminal illness, while his eccentric clothesline experiment signals his search for unconventional meaning. Fate's journey is framed by an interview with a former Black Panther and his instinctive rescue of Rosa Amalfitano from a dangerous situation. The murders in Santa Teresa draw in detectives beginning illicit affairs, foreign lawmen conducting doomed investigations, and gang members used to deflect blame. These secondary events give texture and depth to the novel's broader themes, revealing how ordinary lives are shaped by violence, obsession, and alienation.

The personal struggles and smaller turning points shaping each character's journey.

Morini privately tells Liz in London that Edwin Johns admitted he cut off his own hand purely for commercial gain.

Liz Norton ends her affairs with Pelletier and Espinoza and proposes that all three of them sleep together instead.

Pelletier rescues Amalfitano after the professor collapses in the swimming pool at the hotel in Santa Teresa.

Amalfitano begins hearing a mysterious voice in his head that claims at different moments to be his grandfather and his father.

Fate overhears criminologist Professor Kessler discussing the Santa Teresa murders in a roadside diner near the Mexican border.

Fate pitches a story on the murders of women in Santa Teresa to his editor, who firmly rejects the idea.

The American boxer Count Pickett quickly knocks out the Mexican fighter Merolino, abruptly ending the match Fate was sent to cover.

Fate and Rosa accompany journalist Guadalupe Roncal to interview the imprisoned Klaus Haas before the three flee Santa Teresa.

Florita Almada collapses live on television while claiming to receive a vision about the murdered women of Santa Teresa.

Haas is placed in Hermosillo prison and violently repels a rape attempt, establishing himself as a feared and protected inmate.

Reporter Sergio González persuades his editor to let him travel to Santa Teresa and investigate the murders of women.

FBI expert Albert Kessler arrives in Santa Teresa and pays a taxi driver to tour the city's poorest neighborhoods.

Hans Reiter quietly strangles the Nazi administrator Zeller in a prisoner-of-war camp after hearing him confess to murdering hundreds of Jews.

Hans Reiter reunites with Ingeborg Bauer in postwar Cologne, and she quickly moves into his small apartment in a ruined building.

Archimboldi visits his sister Lotte in Germany and then departs for Mexico, promising to help her imprisoned son Klaus Haas.

Each section of 2666 turns on a set of pivotal revelations and decisions that alter the course of its characters' lives. In Part 1, Morini learns that the artist Johns cut off his hand purely for money, and Liz's sharp rejection of her two lovers triggers a personal reckoning for all involved. In Part 2, Amalfitano's psychological unraveling is signaled by the onset of mysterious voices in his head. Fate's time in Mexico is shaped by an overheard conversation with a criminologist, his editor's refusal to let him pursue the story that matters most, and his split-second decision to rescue Rosa. In Part 4, Florita Almada's televised collapse, Haas's prison violence, and Sergio González's persistent journalism each push the investigation in new directions. The final section reveals the war-era decisions that forged Hans Reiter's transformation into Archimboldi, culminating in his departure for Mexico to help the nephew he has never met.