Paul tours Building 58 and discovers that a machine he originally programmed with Finnerty has broken down beyond repair.

Paul visits a Homestead bar, where retired machinist Rudy Hertz recognizes him and triggers the old player piano.

Paul finds his old friend Finnerty waiting on his bed, having quit his Washington job without explanation.

At the anniversary dinner, the computerized checker player Checker Charley malfunctions and catches fire, giving Paul an unlikely victory.

Bud Calhoun tells Paul he was fired from Ilium because he invented a machine that could perform his own job.

Paul and Finnerty visit a Homestead bar and meet Reverend Lasher, a former sociologist turned preacher.

Kroner privately offers Paul the Pittsburgh position in exchange for Paul denouncing Finnerty and Lasher as saboteurs.

Paul purchases a rundown farmhouse, intending it to be a simple home for him and Anita outside the machine system.

Paul takes Anita to the farmhouse on their anniversary and reveals he plans to quit his job permanently.

Director Gelhorne reveals the Ghost Shirt Society threat and orders Paul to be publicly fired so he can infiltrate the group.

A bartender at the Meadows saloon attacks Paul, calls him a saboteur, and Paul is ejected from the island.

Anita coldly tells Paul she is in love with Shepherd and sends Paul away to the railroad station.

Paul is drugged at a Homestead bar and wakes up disoriented in an unknown location with Lasher and Finnerty watching.

In jail, Paul declares himself the true leader of the Ghost Shirts in front of a stunned Kroner and Anita.

After the failed revolution, the Ghost Shirt leaders watch people repairing machines and walk toward the police to surrender.

Paul Proteus begins the novel as the powerful manager of the Ilium Works, the son of a famous industrialist, increasingly dissatisfied with the automated world around him. His old friend Finnerty returns and draws Paul toward Homestead, where he meets the revolutionary Reverend Lasher and begins questioning his entire way of life. When his boss Kroner offers Paul a prestigious Pittsburgh promotion in exchange for betraying Finnerty, Paul refuses and resolves to quit entirely. The corporate executives fire Paul themselves to use him as a spy, but Paul is swept fully into the Ghost Shirt Society, ultimately declaring himself their true leader in a jail cell. He stands trial for treason as a revolution erupts across Ilium, before finally choosing to surrender alongside his fellow leaders.

The rise and fall of Paul Proteus, from Ilium's top engineer to revolutionary prisoner.

Paul's cat, startled by an automated vacuum cleaner in the factory, bolts up an electrified fence and is killed.

The Shah of Bratpuhr arrives in America with Halyard and cannot find a translation for the word citizen that is not slave.

Paul orders Finnerty to be let through the Ilium plant unescorted, defying policy and provoking Shepherd to document the transgression.

Finnerty admits to Paul that he stole his gun because he had been considering shooting himself.

Paul calls Anita late from the bar and learns that Shepherd visited her and she persuaded him to stay quiet.

The Shah and Halyard tour the massive EPICAC XIV supercomputer system installed underground in the Carlsbad Caverns.

Anita prepares a detailed written list of rules for Paul to follow at Kroner's dinner to improve his chances in Pittsburgh.

The Shah visits the home of an average worker named Edgar Hagstrohm to observe the daily life of ordinary citizens.

The elaborate opening keynote play at the Meadows, depicting the triumph of industrial progress over radicalism, is performed for all attendees.

Paul discovers that Berringer, who was not supposed to attend, has been personally invited to the Meadows by Kroner.

Young Edmund Harrison finds a real arrowhead on the Meadows island and helps Paul after Paul is ejected from the bar.

The Shah's plane makes an emergency landing, and the Shah gives his ruby ring to a young woman in desperate financial need.

Paul returns to Ilium as an unclassified citizen, walks alone through empty streets, and spends the night with a stranger.

Paul registers at the police station, surrenders his privilege cards, and receives a card labeling him a potential saboteur.

A helicopter circles over Ilium broadcasting a demand for the Ghost Shirt leaders to surrender and lay down their arms.

Alongside Paul's main story, Player Piano is populated with telling secondary events that reveal the full shape of this mechanized society. The Shah of Bratpuhr tours America unable to see its citizens as anything other than slaves, while his escort Halyard grows increasingly desperate to manage the Shah's unfiltered observations. Key moments like the automated vacuum killing Paul's cat, Finnerty stealing Paul's gun, and the Shah's visits to EPICAC and an ordinary household all expose the human cost of a world run by machines. Paul's life unravels through smaller incidents — a late-night phone call to Anita, a humiliating registration at the police station, and the sight of Fred Garth being arrested. These events collectively paint the portrait of a society that has traded meaning for efficiency, leaving citizens adrift and purposeless. The pool ends with a helicopter demanding the revolutionaries' surrender as broken machines lie scattered across the streets of Ilium.

The forgotten moments and side stories that expose the true cost of a machine-run society.

Anita phones Paul to push him toward the Pittsburgh promotion, revealing how completely she controls his professional ambitions.

At the anniversary dinner, Shepherd secretly reports Paul's nerves to Kroner in an attempt to undermine Paul's standing.

Finnerty plays a haunting song on the player piano at the Homestead bar and announces he will move in with Lasher.

The Shah kneels before EPICAC XIV and poses an ancient riddle that only a true god can answer; the machine fails.

After Kroner's ultimatum, Paul privately resolves that he cannot betray Finnerty and fully commits himself to quitting his job.

On the drive to the farmhouse, Paul and Anita spot Shepherd training along the road, and Anita's admiration for him becomes apparent.

Anita seduces Paul at the farmhouse after he announces his plan to quit, temporarily convincing him to reconsider leaving Ilium.

Paul discovers that his assigned tent mate at the Meadows is Fred Garth, his direct competition for the Pittsburgh position.

On the train back to Ilium, a retired conductor tells Paul that machines could never replace the human bonds his work gave him.

Outside the police station, Paul sees Fred Garth being arrested, realizing the machine system now targets even its most loyal engineers.

Under a truth drug's influence, Paul confesses everything to Lasher and Finnerty, who declare him the Ghost Shirt Society's chosen Messiah.

At the Ghost Shirt Society meeting, Paul discovers that a manifesto calling for revolution has already been signed in his name.

At his treason trial, Paul uses each question from the prosecutor as an opportunity to broadcast the Ghost Shirts' philosophy on camera.

A brick shatters a courtroom window during Paul's trial as the Ghost Shirt revolution erupts in the streets outside.

Lasher reveals to Paul and Finnerty that he always knew the revolution would fail but wanted the uprising on the historical record.

From the very first chapter, small revelations accumulate to push Paul Proteus away from his engineered life toward an uncertain rebellion. Anita's suffocating ambitions, Shepherd's scheming at the anniversary dinner, and Finnerty's haunting departure to join Lasher all signal a world shifting beneath Paul's feet. Pivotal scenes — the Shah's failed divine test of EPICAC, Paul's private resolution to quit after Kroner's ultimatum, and the quiet revelation of Anita's growing feelings for Shepherd — show the cracks forming in the old order. Paul is drawn deeper into the Ghost Shirt conspiracy through a truth-drug confession and the unsettling discovery that his name has already been signed to a revolutionary manifesto without his consent. At his treason trial, Paul finally chooses to speak his truth publicly, only for revolution to break out around him. The pool closes on Lasher's sobering confession that the uprising was always meant to fail — but was worth attempting for the historical record.

The key decisions and discoveries that drive Paul's transformation and seal the revolution's fate.