All the Water in the World

Nonie, a 13-year-old girl, introduces herself by saying that she can feel water: changes in the weather, rivers, floods, and storms. She describes her Water Logbook, an idea she got from her late mother and the members of her settlement, Amen. They preserve cultural artifacts and perform research.

Amen is atop the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and was founded by museum staff members—including Nonie’s mother—who happened to have keys when a massive climate disaster in the form of floods wiped out most of US civilization. The other citizens are local survivors who sought refuge in the museum.

Ominously, Nonie reveals that neither her affinity for water nor the Logbook helped her predict the storm that would hit Amen.

Nonie has trouble sleeping. She doesn’t know why. A massive blast of wind suddenly hits the longhouse, a structure her dad created using Indigenous American architecture. The wind throws Nonie and her older sister, Bix, to the floor. Their father, whom they call Father, gathers them and Keller, another member of the settlement with whom they’re close. They all grab prepacked go-bags and flee. Nonie’s go-bag contains both the Museum Logbook and her Water Logbook. They rush off the roof to seek shelter as the storm destroys their camp. Two more residents, Jess and Beaumont, follow with their baby, Evangeline.

In a flashback, Nonie recalls her mother, who died some time ago. She was a climate scientist who studied Sea Butterflies to track the changes in the ocean’s chemistry. She helped Nonie and Bix habituate to Amen.

There, they started their preservation efforts, something Father compares to the preservation of the Hermitage Museum during the Nazis’ Siege of Leningrad in World War II. The Hermitage staff lived on little and fought freezing temperatures to protect the art installations until the siege ended, and their staunch desire to preserve cultural artifacts motivated Nonie’s parents do take similar action.

Keller, Bix, Nonie, and Father make it off the roof just as a massive pressure change rips it apart. The event kills Jess, Beaumont, and Evangeline along with anyone else remaining on the roof.

Nonie introduces her family in a flashback. Her sister, Bix, is 16 and is brave and independent except for being terrified of water. This fear is a result of Bix’s near-death experience when the initial flood destroyed New York City and she was nearly swept away.

When Nonie was younger, she spoke rarely. Her family told her that her brain isn’t wired like other people’s, suggesting that she’s neurodivergent. Keller, Angel, and Mano were other residents of Amen, a close, unconventional family unit, but both Angel and Mano died. Keller in particular took time to play and socialize with Nonie on her terms when she was younger.

The wind is so strong that Nonie can’t move. She takes her father’s hand, and Keller takes Bix’s. They link into a human chain and together pull themselves out of the storm.

Nonie reflects on the world before climate collapse, or “The World As It Was.” As the climate worsened, storms became more common and more destructive. Society slowly unraveled, eventually collapsing. Nonie remarks that Bix was born in a hospital with electricity, but she was born in the dark.

They flee to the stacks of museum storage, their storm shelter, but the destruction of the roof exposed it, so it was destroyed it too. They flee toward the Astor Turret at the front of the building.

Nonie recalls how her mother soothed her during storms by helping her imagine she was in a “bathysphere” at the bottom of the ocean.

They arrive at the turret. Its windows are still intact, and through them they can see that the city is rapidly flooding. Bix is terrified. The city’s floodgates have collapsed. Father says they need a boat.

Nonie recalls the storm that destroyed their apartment on Tenth Street. An approaching storm tide forced them to flee, and a surge nearly swept Bix away. Father recovered her and gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. They fled to the museum, to which Mother held the keys.

The water is rising quickly, and Keller calms Nonie down by playing a game he invented called Animal in Mind. The group realizes that the only boat left is a birchbark canoe in one of the exhibits in The Hall of Eastern Woodlands. The building is dark, but Nonie knows the way by heart.

Nonie recalls when they arrived at the AMNH. They met other people who fled there. The early days of the settlement were dangerous: Gunfire rang across the city, and fires burned in the surrounding streets. Nonie began the Water Logbook, since she could sense when water was rising and when it was contaminated. The people of Amen (based on the phonetic pronunciation of AMNH) began their work to preserve the museum’s artifacts. Father said that someday they would need to leave and go north to Mother’s family’s farm in Tyringham.

Nonie leads the others to The Hall of The Eastern Woodlands to retrieve the canoe as water rises in the museum. They realize that they must flee the flooding museum. This terrifies Bix, and Nonie calms her.

In a flashback, Nonie thinks about her mother’s illness and when she told her about the Sally Ride research vessel. It was a scientific expedition that Mother was supposedly meant to travel on, but she was pregnant with Nonie at the time. Mother said that if the world ever recovered, Nonie would be a scientist. Nonie wishes she had visited Mother’s grave one last time.

As they launch the canoe, Nonie realizes that the flood water is contaminated and dangerous. They spot a body floating in the water: It’s Sergio, another resident of Amen that was killed in the storm. They can’t take his body with them and must leave him, and Amen, behind.