Jeremy and fellow Speakers are pinned to a Speaking Wall and permitted to speak only when Mr. U sends them a controlling Pulse.

Mrs. U secretly visits Jeremy at night and forces him to Speak in sensual, romantic ways while he remains Pinioned to the wall.

Mr. U introduces eleven Singers and a Knowledge Mod to create a reenactment of the Battle of Little Bighorn for an upcoming performance.

The White Cap Consortium storms the performance, shoots two audience members, and announces it will dismantle the Speaker and Singer system.

Jeremy seizes a gun during the frenzied battle reenactment and shoots two Consortium members to protect the Untermeyer family.

Mrs. U ends her secret relationship with Jeremy and chooses to rekindle her marriage, leaving Jeremy to realize he has only ever been Mr. U's puppet.

Derek stumbles home bloodied after an elderly stranger violently shoves him to the ground on Church Street.

Derek fails to identify his attacker when two nearly identical cousins are brought to the police station, and both men are released.

A grandfather writes to his grandson Robbie, advising him to stay out of the government's investigation of his friends G., M., and J.

Ed Maxx pressures Tim into firing Brenda and letting Gen face no consequences for nearly nine thousand dollars in fraudulent billing.

Sparrow and Randy marry despite community skepticism, and even Randy's possessive mother eventually comes to accept their relationship.

Brian receives a letter from Rolph's son Edgar revealing the Egress Spout is permanently sealed and visitors from above will never arrive.

Alma collapses against a fence with a fatal heart attack during the violent hailstorm, moments after refusing Debi's offered umbrella.

Elliot Spencer refuses to sign off on a second memory scrape and walks away from Jerry's brainwashing project to live freely.

The narrator of 'My House' falls gravely ill and imagines writing Mel Hays a final apology letter before accepting his own approaching death.

This pool covers the most significant plot events across all nine stories in Liberation Day, tracing each narrative from its opening situation to its resolution. In the title story, Jeremy's enslavement as a Speaker culminates in a violent uprising that forces him to choose between his oppressors and his fellow captives. Across the collection, ordinary characters like Derek's mother and the office worker Brenda confront the lasting damage caused by injustice, while a grandfather's letter warns his grandson about the dangers of speaking out under authoritarian rule. In 'Ghoul,' Brian's discovery of the sealed Egress Spout leads to a heroic act of self-sacrifice, and in 'Mother's Day,' Alma's sudden death brings decades of resentment to a devastating close. The final stories grapple with mortality and identity: Elliot Spencer reclaims himself and escapes brainwashing, while the narrator of 'My House' accepts his own inevitable death. Together, these events form the spine of Saunders's exploration of oppression, love, and the human need for freedom.

The headline events driving each of the nine stories.

Mr. U sends Jeremy, Craig, and Lauren a Pulse that enables them to speak, setting their performance topic as 'Nautical.'

Mike enters the speaking room, calls the Speakers' situation 'monstrous,' and ominously hints that help will be arriving soon.

The White Cap Consortium leader opens a notebook and reveals to Craig and Lauren that they once had families and loved ones.

Craig and Lauren are reprogrammed with new identities and complete the Little Bighorn performance from the perspective of three Indigenous women.

Derek's mother writes a furious essay titled 'Justice' about retribution after both elderly suspects are released without any punishment.

Keith reads his wife's 'Justice' essay and abruptly leaves the house on an unusual run before she can ask why.

The police offer to drop the charge against Derek's attacker if Derek's family agrees not to pursue Keith for his assault.

The grandfather describes how the government gradually expanded its powers after a critical election, suppressing protest and controlling citizens.

Gen shows Tim video footage of Brenda secretly stealing coffee and paper towels from the office kitchen and supply room.

Sparrow falls in love with her grocery store colleague Randy and begins attempting to develop her own personality to attract him.

Brian and Amy whisper sarcastically about the underground society's fake visitors; colleague Gwen overhears, and Amy orders her kicked to death.

Fellow Monitors Kiko and Shirley move against Amy for ordering Tom's death; Amy flees capture by going up the Egress Spout.

Debi fetches an umbrella to help Alma's family struggling in the hailstorm, but Alma refuses the gesture out of deep resentment.

Elliot is sent into the opposing protesters' crowd and beaten severely, triggering flashbacks of his former life living under a bridge.

The narrator tours Mel Hays's crumbling estate, falls in love with the property, and makes an above-asking offer that Hays immediately declines.

This pool focuses on the secondary moments and supporting scenes that deepen each narrative in the collection. In 'Liberation Day,' Mike's warning to the Speakers and the Consortium's revelation about the captives' erased lives add crucial layers to the story's portrait of enslavement. Across the domestic stories, smaller but consequential events — Derek's mother's furious essay, Keith's suspicious departure, and the police deal that quietly closes the case — show how ordinary moments can spiral into lasting harm. The workplace drama of 'A Thing at Work' takes shape through Gen's incriminating video of Brenda, while the underground world of 'Ghoul' is irreversibly destabilized when Brian and Amy's private doubts lead to a colleague's death and Amy's flight up the Egress Spout. From Sparrow's tentative attempts at self-development to the narrator of 'My House' receiving his first and most decisive rejection from Mel Hays, this pool captures the scenes just beneath the surface of each story's headline action. Together, these events reveal the full texture of Saunders's world-building and the gradual accumulation of pressure that drives each story toward its conclusion.

The supporting scenes and secondary story beats that fill out each narrative.

After speaking to Mrs. U through the Knowledge Mod, Jeremy decides he is wholly in love with her despite his loyalty to Mr. U.

Lauren reveals that Mrs. U visits Jeremy nightly and forces him to Speak while pinned; Jeremy insists the encounters were entirely consensual.

Jeremy hands Mrs. U the gun during the uprising, choosing to protect his oppressors rather than join his fellow Speakers in rebellion.

The police call to tell Derek's mother that the second suspect confessed to pushing Derek, meaning Keith attacked a completely innocent man.

Derek's mother spots Leo Dimini walking with a permanent limp and realizes her 'Justice' essay led to the disabling of an innocent man.

The grandfather admits to Robbie that he and his wife were complacent and failed to act as their government steadily expanded its authoritarian control.

Brenda retaliates against Gen by placing Gen's falsified expense receipts on Tim's desk, revealing Gen has stolen nearly nine thousand dollars.

Randy's mother begins bullying Sparrow at work after realizing that Sparrow has developed romantic feelings for her son.

Brian receives a note from Tom pleading not to be reported and lets the reporting window expire without informing the Monitors.

Monitor Amy finds Tom's note, orders Tom kicked to death, and begins a romantic relationship with Brian that same night.

Brian wakes in the medical ward to discover Amy jumped to her death down the Egress Spout; a doctor secretly delivers Amy's farewell note.

Brian resolves to distribute Rolph's and Amy's letters throughout the underground community, accepting that spreading the truth will likely cost him his life.

The narrative shifts to Debi's perspective, revealing her genuine love for Paul Sr. and her deep resentment of Alma for looking down on her.

Elliot wakes after being given a sleep-inducing pill and suddenly remembers his real name; Jerry immediately administers a scrape test to re-wipe his memory.

The narrator of 'My House' becomes obsessively fixated on the estate, frequently driving past it as its porch collapses and the property crumbles.

This pool collects the moments of revelation and decision that fundamentally alter the course of each story in the collection. In 'Liberation Day,' Jeremy's private declaration of love for Mrs. U and his choice to hand her the gun expose the depths of his psychological enslavement, while Lauren's public accusation and Jeremy's defense of Mrs. U crystallize the story's central moral crisis. In the domestic stories, turning points arrive through phone calls, overheard conversations, and guilty realizations — including Derek's mother learning of the confession that proves her husband attacked an innocent man, and Brenda's act of retaliation reshaping the office power dynamic entirely. 'Ghoul' is defined by a chain of revelations: Brian's choice not to report Tom, Amy's fatal escalation, and finally Brian's decision to spread the underground truth at the cost of his own life. Aging and memory take center stage in the collection's later stories, as Elliot Spencer reclaims his real name after being beaten and the narrator of 'My House' surrenders to an obsession with a house he can never own. Together, these turning points reveal how Saunders constructs each story around a single moment when a character's understanding of their world shifts irrevocably.