The novel begins with the narrator, Marco Stanley Fogg, summarizing the events of the novel; the story begins with his decision to live perilously and ends with his arrival on foot in California. Now that he is older, he looks back on this story as the “beginning of [his] life” (1). The novel shifts to Fogg’s narration of the events that he just outlined.

As the narrator-Fogg relates, his younger self first arrives in New York in 1965 to study at Columbia University. In his second semester, he moves to an apartment that he fills with boxes of books, which were given to him by his Uncle Victor. Fogg repurposes the packed boxes to furnish his home. Victor dies in 1967, dealing a huge emotional blow to Fogg. (Victor raised Fogg after Fogg’s mother, Emily, died in a traffic accident when he was 11. Fogg never knew his father and was told that the man had died before Fogg was born.)

Victor was a clarinetist who first worked at the Cleveland Orchestra before getting fired for his unprofessional behavior. In 1958, when he took Fogg in, Victor made a living by giving lessons to young students and playing in small bands for formal gatherings. Fogg describes Victor as someone who was always so preoccupied with different ideas that it affected his attention span. This quirk suited the young Fogg nicely, since Victor always indulged him with imaginative games. Victor affectionately called him “Phileas,” a reference to the protagonist of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1872), and he also used many other names that helped to insulate Fogg from the bullying he experienced at his new school. In time, Fogg eventually began referring to himself as “M. S.,” which Victor appreciated as a reference to the idea of his life as an unfinished book.

From Cleveland, Victor and Fogg abruptly moved to Saint Paul and then Chicago. Though Fogg had no musical talent, he and Victor bonded over a shared love of baseball. With the settlement he received from Emily’s death, Victor financed Fogg’s upbringing all the way through college. When Fogg was 14, Victor was briefly married to a widow named Dora Shamsky. Their tumultuous marriage had a negative emotional effect on Victor, and they divorced after he sent Fogg to boarding school. Victor soon joined a road band called the Moon Men. Because the start of their tour coincided with Fogg’s departure for New York, Victor bade Fogg farewell and bequeathed him his extensive library and his tweed suit, among other valuable belongings. He assured Fogg that all the correspondences in nature were signs that things would work out for them in the end.

In New York, Fogg wore Victor’s suit every day in order to feel connected to him. Through the suit, he styled himself as an intellectual who drank and smoked often. At the end of the first spring term, Fogg’s closest friend, David Zimmer, suggested that he and Fogg move in together, but Fogg declined in favor of moving into his own studio apartment instead. On one of his first nights there, Fogg saw the neon sign for a Chinese restaurant on Broadway, which read “MOON PALACE.” This made him feel connected to Victor and allayed his fears of living on his own.

When Fogg was 20, he received a letter from Victor, explaining that the Moon Men had disbanded and that Victor had become bankrupt. Fogg invited Victor to live with him in New York, and although Victor indicated that he would come, he never arrived. After asking an Idaho police sergeant named Neil Armstrong to investigate Victor’s whereabouts, Fogg learned that Victor had died of a heart attack just before leaving his lodgings. A grief-stricken Fogg took care of Victor’s burial arrangements during his brief visit to Chicago.

Now, in the aftermath of Victor’s death, Fogg’s personal funds begin to dwindle. He considers dropping out of college but reconsiders because abandoning his studies would disrespect Victor’s memory and force him to be drafted into the Vietnam War. However, Fogg opts not to apply for any financial opportunities at school because they all make him feel nauseous. He reasons that his inaction is a romanticized act of despair that will help him to understand the experience of doom. Instead of working, Fogg starts reading through Victor’s library as a way to honor his uncle. The sequence of the books allows him to live through his uncle’s literary life in chronological order. After he finishes reading them, he starts selling the volumes to a used bookstore to extend his finances, though the book buyer undervalues many of the titles that Fogg offers him.

As the 1960s come to an end, Fogg and Zimmer experience a brief period of incarceration after participating in a student protest at Columbia. Victor’s suit is ruined, and Fogg is forced to abandon it. His finances continue to dwindle, though he never tells Zimmer the truth, making up excuses for the sudden changes in his lifestyle to avoid his friend’s pity. By the time he graduates from college, Fogg is living under the looming threat of eviction and must sell all his other belongings, including Victor’s valuables. Upon failing an attempt to overcome his hunger through sheer force of will, Fogg starts experiencing hallucinations in his apartment.

Fogg sells the last of Victor’s books on the same day as the American moon landing. To his surprise, he enters a state of calm and happiness, which inspires him to perceive the coincidences between his life and the moon landing. This reverie ends just as abruptly a few days later. Fogg attempts to visit Zimmer several times but fails to reach him and ends up leaving messages at his friend’s apartment. One morning, Fogg tries again and learns that Zimmer has moved elsewhere. The current resident of the apartment invites Fogg inside after seeing that he is wearing the same Mets shirt that his friend, Kitty, is wearing. He introduces Fogg to his friends as Kitty’s twin. All the people Fogg meets there are performing arts students at Julliard.

Kitty Wu is a Chinese American dance student who suggests that Fogg join them for breakfast, which Fogg appreciates. He immediately becomes smitten with her. When someone at the breakfast posits that the moon landing was staged, Fogg launches into a speculative discourse about the history of moon landings, giving special focus to Cyrano de Bergerac’s visit to the moon and asserting that Cyrano was indeed a historical figure. He soon decides to go home, but Kitty asks him for a good-bye kiss before he leaves.

Fogg receives a second eviction notice on the day of the moon astronauts’ New York ticker-tape parade. It is revealed that he still has Victor’s clarinet, but he refuses to part with it because it is his only remaining link to his uncle. When an accident spoils the last of Fogg’s food supply, he splurges on a meal at the Moon Palace to comfort himself. He accepts that this is his final meal, then returns to his apartment to find a notice for an army physical in his mailbox. Throughout the night, Fogg hears several knocks at his door and deduces that at least two people came by to look for him. In the morning, Fogg answers the door to the superintendent, Simon Fernandez, who informs him that he must vacate the studio at once. When Fernandez encourages Fogg to find work, Fogg tells him that he works on trying to live through each day as a full-time job. Fernandez dismisses the remark as “strange,” comparing it to the foolishness of the moon landing. Fogg complies with his eviction order.