Forty-four-year-old Soot, a Black author and speaker, arrives at the Minneapolis airport in the middle of a brutal Minnesota winter. A thin-framed man with an Afro escorts him to a black SUV. The man explains that he arranged for Soot to speak at a local college in the wake of recent student deaths. The deaths occurred just a week earlier, though Soot had accepted the engagement a year prior. During the dangerous drive through worsening weather, the man drives erratically while using two phones for navigation. He expresses immense gratitude for Soot’s presence, referencing Soot’s past appearances at other campuses after tragedies and his willingness to discuss the deaths of his own father and daughter.

When asked what one says to grief, Soot offers a thought experiment: Imagine he can travel through time and knows for certain that everything will turn out okay. The man finds this unsettling but comforting. At the hotel entrance, as the blizzard intensifies, Soot stops and looks back, imagining he hears music like wind chimes buried in the storm.

A first-person narrator begins a new story thread, describing a recent summer of intense social protest and optimism that felt like genuine change was possible. Corporations and the wealthy directed resources toward Black communities, creating what he calls “The Summer of The Great Get Back” (7). With the arrival of fall, the energy dissipated and things returned to normal, leaving only memories.

The narrator denies being cynical, listing incredible things he has witnessed. He reveals his trip to Europe was prompted not by disillusionment but by a death threat in a Los Angeles alley. He had spent a week in Hollywood unsuccessfully trying to sell film rights to his book. While walking back to his hotel dressed in vintage attire, tourists mistake him for someone famous. Suddenly, he is tackled in an alley by John J. Remus, a powerful man in his late sixties who sticks his finger deep into the narrator’s mouth and examines his teeth. When the narrator tries to resist, Remus’s grip becomes vise-like, and he asks about the narrator’s next book project. After releasing him, Remus notes a small crack in a molar, introduces himself, tells the narrator not to overreact, and then says, “I’m going to kill you” (19).

The frame shifts to reveal the narrator is on an airplane, recounting this story to fellow passenger, Stephanie. To avoid revealing his identity, he tells her his name is Ta-Nehisi Coates. He explains he is heading to Europe on a book tour, partly to escape Remus.

Soot visits his ex-wife, Tasha, at her Toronto home. The house is filled with photographs of Tasha and their deceased daughter, Mia, on trips around the world. After brief small talk, Tasha asks why he is really there. Soot reveals that he can literally travel through time, visiting and reliving any moment of his life. Tasha dismisses this as memory, but Soot insists it is real.

He tells her he has reviewed their entire past and concluded they were good parents who made the right decisions and that Mia’s death was not their fault. Crying, he says Tasha needs to accept this or she will not survive. Tasha replies that their daughter will never return and urges Soot to sell everything and leave Bolton, North Carolina, before the obsession with the past kills him. Soot leaves abruptly. Outside, he is tempted to return and grieve with her, the only person who could truly understand his grief, but he resists, believing there are no answers in moving forward, only in the past.

The narrator clarifies that the “N-word” he mentioned earlier is the National Book Award, which he now calls “The Big One” (27). A few years ago, he won the award—presented by Oprah—though he notes the book’s sales were not strong. He describes the raucous celebration on his publisher’s New York rooftop, where partygoers drank cocktails from the eight-pound bronze statue’s shot-glass-shaped opening. The party was a release after the isolation of the plague years.

His agent, Sharon, arrives and announces an all-expenses-paid book tour of Italy and France, funded by a wealthy European benefactor whose name is redacted. She describes Europe as a place where Black Americans can simply exist without being segmented or judged and claims Europeans treat people like him well. She cannot accompany him as she is pursuing a blurb from Stephen King. Sharon mentions that the Obamas previously refused to blurb his book because he did not vote in the 2012 election.

When Sharon asks about Remus, the narrator dismisses the threat. Her voice seems to shift to Remus’s as she warns that he will find and kill him. The narrator notes he has a “condition” that “plays tricks” on him (35). As fireworks explode, Sharon takes the statue and disappears. The next morning, he finds the statue outside his door and considers buying a gun.

At the faculty dinner in Minnesota, Soot sits with grieving professors. Caroline, a middle-aged woman, admits they are all struggling with the recent student deaths. David, a Black professor, bluntly states that Soot should not be there so soon after the tragedy. Soot excuses himself to the bathroom, conscious of the gun concealed under his jacket.

David follows him inside and confronts him angrily, calling him a “vulture” profiting from their grief. Soot shares that his deceased daughter, Mia, had dreamed of attending this specific college since she was six years old. David’s aggression gives way to overwhelming grief. Soot responds with an expletive-laden phrase ending with the n-word, and David begins to sob. The two men engage in a prolonged call-and-response, repeating the phrase. The narrator describes it as a “mantra,” an old prayer, and a private language for their shared, racialized grief—a temporary refuge where they can express their pain freely.

The narrator, who has never owned a gun, purchases a Colt 1911 pistol and shoulder holster at Bobby’s Pawn & Gun City in coastal North Carolina. The store owner, Earl, praises him and provides instructions on how to smuggle the firearm into Europe.

After a transatlantic flight during which he impersonates Ta-Nehisi Coates, the narrator lands in Milan. He is met by The Goon, a seven-foot-tall, well-dressed Black man with a Scottish accent who declares himself a fan. When the narrator expresses surprise at encountering a Black Scottish man, The Goon replies simply, “We exist.” The narrator’s phone has no service; inspired by The Goon’s advice about truly escaping, he throws it into a trash can.

They drive through Milan in an ancient Citroën car during Fashion Week. The narrator sees a bookstore sign indicating that Alice Walker had recently been there, which gives him a sense of connection. The Goon asks if he has ever been to Rhode Island but does not explain why. The narrator falls asleep and wakes as they arrive at a stunning glass villa on a hilltop. At the massive entrance doors, The Goon tells him to enter alone. Inside, someone taps the narrator on the shoulder. He turns and is stunned to see The Kid, a figure from his past who had disappeared years ago without explanation.

Soot time-travels to relive the day he found his daughter, Mia, dead. It is a sweltering August afternoon at his home in Bolton. He discovers a note taped to the door: “Out back. I love you. I’m sorry” (55). He sees her lying in the grass beyond the grapevines. The wind makes the hem of her dress wave as if she is beckoning him. For a brief moment, he believes she is simply napping, a lifelong habit of hers. When understanding finally strikes, he collapses on the porch.

He pleads aloud for her to get up, making desperate promises to fix everything and take her away. The narrative notes that he will later hate himself for this moment of calm, for not immediately knowing she was gone. Neighbors will describe hearing a horrible, inhuman sound—the “scream of a father’s grief” (58). The memory ends with Soot weeping on the porch as the image of his daughter’s dress waving in the wind persists.

Inside the villa, the narrator is overjoyed to see The Kid, his former imaginary friend from a past book tour. The Kid is now a tall, stylish young man of about 18. The narrator embraces him enthusiastically, but The Kid pushes him away and formally introduces himself as Dylan, an assistant to their host. Dylan’s Southern accent is gone, replaced by a polished, multilingual demeanor. He insists the narrator stop calling him “Kid” and claims not to know him. Dylan explains he was born in Baltimore but moved to Europe at 14 and now speaks about five languages. The narrator begins to doubt whether this is actually The Kid or simply a stranger, especially noting that, unlike before, Dylan appears visible to others.

Dylan leads the narrator to meet their billionaire host, whom the narrator nicknames “Frenchie” due to legal concerns. Frenchie, thin and pale with a thick French accent, greets him with intense enthusiasm, calling it the greatest honor of his life. He gives a tour of the vast villa, which once belonged to a famous Italian family.

Over a lavish dinner with Dylan present, Frenchie praises the narrator’s work. He then reveals the purpose of the visit: to change the narrator’s “fate.” Frenchie bluntly states that the narrator will never get a movie deal or write a bestseller because “wealth does not like people like” him (68). However, he offers to make it possible for the narrator to earn a redacted multi-million-dollar sum. Though wary, the narrator decides the offer is large enough to hear Frenchie out.