Hal Incandenza suffers a terrifying breakdown during a college admissions interview and cannot make himself understood.

Ken Erdedy spends hours paralyzed in his apartment, obsessively waiting for a marijuana dealer who never arrives.

A Saudi medical attaché watches an unmarked film tape and becomes so captivated that he soaks himself in urine and cannot stop.

Don Gately accidentally suffocates a man named Guillaume DuPlessis during a botched home burglary in Boston.

Remy Marathe and Hugh Steeply meet secretly on a Tucson hillside to discuss a lethally addictive film called the Entertainment.

Michael Pemulis obtains rare DMZ tablets from Quebecois separatists and plans a drug session with Hal and Axford.

Joelle Van Dyne locks herself in a bathroom at a party and overdoses on crack cocaine, intending to die.

The Eschaton wargame on the ETA courts descends into chaos as students abandon tennis balls and attack each other with rackets.

Michael Pemulis discovers Avril Incandenza alone with John Wayne in a sexually compromising situation inside her office.

Don Gately is shot in the shoulder while defending Ennet House residents from armed Quebecois attackers outside the facility.

Don collapses from his gunshot wound and tells the woman beside him that he knows she is Madame Psychosis.

The Wheelchair Assassins find the Antitoi brothers' copy of the Entertainment, but two of their own members accidentally become trapped watching it.

A wraith speaking in James Incandenza's voice visits Don in the hospital and reveals the Entertainment was made to reach Hal.

The Wheelchair Assassins trap Orin inside a glass container and release cockroaches to force him to reveal the Entertainment's location.

Don wakes alone on a cold beach under light rain, emerging from unconsciousness after the brutal Fackelmann incident.

Infinite Jest's main plot follows two protagonists whose lives spiral toward crisis: Hal Incandenza, a tennis prodigy secretly addicted to marijuana at an elite sports academy, and Don Gately, a recovering criminal trying to rebuild his life at Ennet House rehabilitation center. Running parallel is the story of a deadly film called the Entertainment, made by Hal's late father James, which the Wheelchair Assassins seek to use as a political weapon against the United States. These threads are connected through surveillance, mistaken identities, and the growing threat of the Assassins closing in on the Incandenza family and those around them. The escalating danger culminates in Don being shot protecting his residents and Orin being captured and tortured for information about the film's whereabouts. The novel ends with Don reliving the most violent moment of his criminal past, waking alone on a cold beach in a rain-soaked liminal space between his old life and his uncertain future.

The core storyline from Hal's breakdown to Don's dark awakening.

As a toddler, Hal eats a clump of mold in the garden, causing the normally unshakeable Avril to panic completely.

James Incandenza disguises himself as a professional conversationalist to speak honestly with his eleven-year-old son Hal, forgetting to remove his sweater vest.

The medical attaché's wife returns home and is also trapped by the film; the room gradually fills with captivated medical staff.

Kate Gompert is placed on suicide watch in a psychiatric ward and tells a doctor she simply does not want to exist.

Mario and ETA head coach Schtitt visit an ice cream parlor where Schtitt describes tennis as an infinite internal war against oneself.

Orin Incandenza quits tennis at university, becomes a professional football punter, and falls deeply in love with cheerleader Joelle Van Dyne.

Poor Tony suffers a violent hallucinatory seizure on a Boston train during heroin withdrawal and bites through a fellow passenger's fingers.

Randy Lenz secretly begins poisoning and killing stray cats and dogs during his nightly walks to manage his withdrawal rage.

Mario screens his finger puppet documentary about the founding of O.N.A.N. for ETA students on Interdependence Day.

Randy Lenz kills a stray dog in full view of Bruce Green, attracting a crowd that includes men in wheelchairs.

The WYYY radio station engineer is snatched from outside his studio and bundled into a van by wheelchair-bound men.

Marathe enters Ennet House disguised as a Swiss heroin addict named Henri, searching for the master copy of the Entertainment.

While undercover at Ennet House, Marathe hears Pat Montesian mention film cartridges donated from ETA's storage tunnels.

Hal attends a recovery meeting in Natick but realizes too late he has entered a men's emotional issues group rather than Narcotics Anonymous.

Don Gately refuses all pain medication in the hospital despite agonizing pain, terrified of destroying his sobriety.

The world of Infinite Jest is populated by a vast cast of characters whose lives run parallel to the central narratives, and this pool traces the stories behind the stories. Hal's strange childhood, the mysterious film's first victims beyond the attaché, and the broken lives that led characters to Ennet House all fill in the texture of a deeply troubled society. Orin's transformation from burned-out tennis player to football star and Joelle's entry into the Incandenza family are key pieces of backstory that explain the web of relationships at the novel's core. Meanwhile, the chaos of addiction spreads outward through Randy Lenz's violent deterioration, Poor Tony's withdrawal crisis on a train, and the Wheelchair Assassins' creeping infiltration of Boston's streets. By the time Hal mistakenly attends the wrong recovery meeting and Don lies in a hospital refusing narcotics, the novel has assembled a detailed and devastating portrait of a society in the grip of widespread, systemic suffering.

The supporting cast, backstories, and secondary crises that build the world.

James Incandenza kills himself by sticking his head inside a specially rigged microwave oven after years of struggling with alcohol addiction.

Joelle, walking through Boston, is revealed as Madame Psychosis and reflects on her deep entanglement with the Incandenza family.

Orin introduces the beautiful Joelle to his father James, who casts her repeatedly in his experimental films.

Don Gately experiences a sudden genuine realization that the addiction recovery programs actually work and commits sincerely to sobriety.

Don stands up at a White Flag meeting and admits he still does not believe in God, and the crowd erupts in cheers.

The Wheelchair Assassins invade the Antitoi brothers' video store and kill Lucien by forcing a broom handle down his throat.

Hal's mandatory urine test is delayed after Michael Pemulis threatens to expose Avril's secret sexual relationship with John Wayne.

Fortier places all members of the Incandenza family and Joelle under constant Wheelchair Assassin surveillance to locate the Entertainment.

Marathe confesses to Steeply that he plans to betray the Wheelchair Assassins to secure vital medical treatment for his dying wife Gertraude.

Hal confesses to his brother Mario that he has been secretly addicted to marijuana and is suffering severe withdrawal symptoms.

Molly Notkin tells government agents that the Entertainment stars Joelle as a maternal figure of Death speaking to an unseen infant.

A hospital doctor overrides Don Gately's objections and prescribes Demerol, threatening to undo his years of hard-won sobriety.

Hal experiences a devastating panic attack in the ETA viewing room, lying on the floor feeling completely hollow and unable to feel anything genuine.

Joelle tells a woman outside the hospital that James likely never finished the Entertainment and any master copy is buried with him.

Don relives in hallucinatory memory the brutal torture of Gene Fackelmann before waking alone on a cold, rain-swept beach.

The turning points of Infinite Jest are the moments when characters are forced to confront painful truths about themselves and their world. James Incandenza's suicide casts a long shadow over every character, shaping Hal's addiction, Orin's dislocation, and Joelle's unresolved grief over a man she could not save. As the narrative progresses, secrets are exposed and loyalties strained: Pemulis uses blackmail to buy time, Marathe weighs betraying his cause for love, and Don publicly admits the shameful limits of his own faith at a recovery meeting. The Wheelchair Assassins grow increasingly violent in their search for the Entertainment, murdering Lucien Antitoi and placing the entire Incandenza family under surveillance. By the novel's final pages, Hal has confessed his addiction to Mario, Joelle has hinted that the Entertainment's master copy may be forever beyond reach, and Don lies in hospital reliving the worst night of his life, suspended between sobriety and collapse.