Narrator fabricates insomnia symptoms to obtain a powerful cocktail of sedating drugs from psychiatrist Dr. Tuttle.

Narrator defecates on the art gallery floor near a taxidermic poodle exhibit in an act of spite.

Narrator is fired from her gallery job and commits fully to her hibernation project.

Reva visits the sedated narrator and warns her that sleeping so excessively is deeply unhealthy.

Narrator begins having disturbing dreams about her dead parents during the early weeks of hibernation.

Dr. Tuttle prescribes the powerful blackout drug Infermiterol at a December appointment.

Reva visits on Christmas Day and reveals that her mother has recently died of cancer.

Narrator takes Infermiterol for the first time and wakes three days later to disturbing evidence of sleepwalking.

Narrator wakes on a Long Island commuter train wearing an unfamiliar white fur coat after an Infermiterol blackout.

Narrator's sleepwalking self arranged for her to attend Reva's mother's funeral in Farmingdale without her conscious knowledge.

Narrator wakes to find all her sleeping pills stolen and travels to Reva's apartment to retrieve them.

Narrator is accidentally locked in Reva's bathroom, which inspires her to devise a stricter locked-in hibernation plan.

Narrator gifts her entire designer wardrobe to Reva and donates all her belongings before beginning six months of locked hibernation.

Narrator wakes on June 1 feeling genuinely transformed and begins exploring the city with childlike wonder.

Narrator buys a new VCR on September 11 and watches news footage of a woman she believes is Reva leap from the North Tower.

The narrator, a wealthy and deeply unhappy 26-year-old, fabricates insomnia symptoms to obtain sedating drugs and begins a year-long hibernation project. After being fired from her gallery job, she commits fully to sleeping, but disturbing dreams and dangerous blackouts complicate her plan. A series of Infermiterol-induced sleepwalking episodes force her into the world she is trying to escape, including an unwitting trip to her friend Reva's mother's funeral. When Reva steals her pills, the narrator is accidentally locked in Reva's bathroom, inspiring her to devise a stricter, locked-in hibernation overseen by the artist Ping Xi. She emerges transformed on June 1, but the novel ends on September 11, when she watches news footage of a woman she believes to be Reva leaping from the World Trade Center.

The core arc of the narrator's hibernation project, from its origins to its aftermath.

Narrator receives advice to sell her parents' Poughkeepsie house but cannot act on it, keeping it as proof she was not always alone.

Narrator discovers she has been sleepwalking and making strange online purchases while unconscious, and locks away her phone and computer.

Narrator and Reva spend New Year's Eve watching muted pornographic films and passing a bottle of alcohol back and forth.

Narrator wakes to find Polaroid photos from an unknown night out and recognizes the artist Ping Xi in one of them.

Narrator calls Trevor at 5am and lies about being sexually assaulted to coerce him into coming over.

Narrator spends an entire day calling Trevor with escalating fabricated crises, including claims of financial ruin and HIV.

Reva visits and reveals her affair with married boss Ken has ended and she has been transferred to the World Trade Center.

Narrator gradually realizes, during Reva's distracted visit, that Reva is pregnant with Ken's child.

Trevor visits for the last time, has sex with the narrator, and leaves a DVD player as an unsolicited parting gift.

Narrator receives a bouquet of flowers from Ping Xi, who calls her his muse and proposes an art collaboration in a handwritten note.

Narrator suffers a frightening dissociative episode and wonders aloud whether death is the only true path to sleep.

Dr. Tuttle doubles the narrator's Infermiterol dosage at their next appointment, noting that the narrator's face appears off-center.

Narrator makes a final phone call to Dr. Tuttle to say she will be away for months, permanently cutting off contact with her psychiatrist.

Ping Xi's multimedia art show based on the narrator's hibernation opens at Ducat gallery and receives mixed reviews.

After the September 11 attacks, narrator learns Reva is lost while Trevor, who also worked at the World Trade Center, was safely out of state.

While the narrator pursues her hibernation project, a series of consequential secondary events shape her trajectory. Her eccentric and irresponsible psychiatrist supplies an absurd range of drugs, and the narrator manages to avoid selling her parents' Poughkeepsie house despite repeated advice to do so. Mid-hibernation, her sleeplessness drives her to a series of erratic phone calls to her ex-boyfriend Trevor, culminating in a degrading final encounter. Meanwhile, Reva reveals she is pregnant and newly transferred to the World Trade Center, and the artist Ping Xi sends flowers and proposes a collaboration. The novel closes when Reva is reported lost after September 11, while Trevor, who worked in the same building, happened to be out of state that day.

The significant supporting moments that fill in the story around the narrator's main hibernation arc.

By October, narrator notices she is growing emotionally detached from life and takes this as proof her hibernation is working.

Sitting alone in Reva's childhood bedroom, narrator admits to herself that Reva loved her mother in a way she never loved her own.

Narrator watches Reva deliver an emotional eulogy at the funeral and uses her friend's raw grief to dismiss and deflect her own buried pain.

Narrator calls Trevor while sober and admits she only wants to hear that he misses her, then immediately hangs up when he says it.

Narrator realizes none of her usual drugs produce sleep anymore and that only Infermiterol still works.

Reva steals the narrator's entire pill stash in a misguided attempt to protect her from herself.

After retrieving her pills from Reva's apartment, narrator chooses to leave all of them behind, keeping only the Infermiterol.

Narrator strikes a deal with Ping Xi: he keeps her locked inside and supplied with food in exchange for documenting her hibernation as art.

Narrator privately decides she will jump from her apartment window if she wakes in June and finds herself unchanged.

On May 28, narrator takes her last remaining Infermiterol pill and prays for mercy as unconsciousness descends.

During her final drug vision, narrator feels herself sink into oblivion and reaches out to grasp a mysterious presence that steadies her.

Narrator wakes on June 1 to sunlight and a birdsong and understands, without analysis, that she is genuinely different.

Narrator visits Reva on her birthday and, for the first time, truly sees her friend's beauty and the gift of her loyalty.

Narrator walks through Central Park holding a letter about her parents' house and finally senses that there is genuine kindness in the world.

Narrator watches the 9/11 footage repeatedly, struck not by grief but by the leaping woman's beauty and courage as she falls wide awake.

Beneath the surface of the narrator's hibernation project lies a series of pivotal inner turning points that drive her actual change. At Reva's mother's funeral, she confronts the truth that she never loved her own mother the way Reva loved hers, and she realizes her emotional numbness has grown complete. After sleepless nights strip away her defenses, she admits to Trevor she simply wants to feel wanted — a rare moment of raw vulnerability. When Reva steals her pills, the narrator makes the decisive choice to leave them all behind and enlist Ping Xi in a final, more extreme hibernation. She privately resolves to jump from her window if she wakes unchanged, and her last Infermiterol vision becomes a genuine reckoning with her past. The novel's emotional climax arrives not with her June awakening but with the 9/11 footage, in which she finds beauty, courage, and a reason to remain wide awake.

The key emotional shifts, private decisions, and revelations that define the narrator's inner transformation.