Plot Summary Library

Explore thousands of classic and contemporary titles in a quick-read format. SuperSummary Plot Summaries feature a full synopsis to guide you through key plot points. Browse titles alphabetically or by genre.

There’s more! Find comprehensive chapter-by-chapter summaries and in-depth analyses on over 10,000 more titles in our Study Guide Library.

All TitlesModern FictionClassic FictionNonfictionPlaysEssaysPoetryMiddle Grade/YA
History in Three Keys
Paul A. Cohen

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997

How Markets Fail
John Cassidy

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

Idiot Brain
Dean Burnett

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

Imperial Reckoning
Caroline Elkins

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2005

Journey from the Land of No
Roya Hakakian

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2004

The Great Escape
Angus Deaton

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013

A Stillness at Appomattox
Bruce Catton

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1953

The Power of Positive Thinking
Norman Vincent Peale

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1952

Belfast Diary
John Conroy

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1989

The City in History
Lewis Mumford

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1961

Keeping Faith
Jimmy Carter

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1982

Looking for Transwonderland
Noo Saro-Wiwa

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2012

Makers and Takers
Rana Foroohar

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

My Father's Paradise
Ariel Sabar

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2008

My Soul is Rested
Howell Raines

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1977

NeuroTribes
Steve Silberman

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

On Hitler's Mountain
Irmgard Hunt

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2005

Pandora's Lab
Paul A. Offit

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation
John Phillip Santos

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1999

Plain, Honest Men
Richard Beeman

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

Rise of the Rocket Girls
Nathalia Holt

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2016

Stubborn Twig
Lauren Kessler

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1993

Stuff Matters
Mark Miodownik

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013

The Autobiography of an Execution
David R. Dow

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2010

The Big Necessity
Rose George

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

Bayou Farewell
Mike Tidwell

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1998

Some of My Best Friends are Black
Tanner Colby

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

The Empire of Necessity
Greg Grandin

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
Jennifer 8. Lee

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

The Medusa and the Snail
Lewis Thomas

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1979

The Last Voyage of Columbus
Martin Dugard

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2005

The Looting Machine
Tom Burgis

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

Mornings on Horseback
David McCullough

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1981

The Power of Moments
Chip Heath

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

The Woman Behind the New Deal
Kirstin Downey

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

When Everything Changed
Gail Collins

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

Where the Birds Never Sing
Jack Sacco

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2003

The Happiness Hypothesis
Jonathan Haidt

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

A Rage for Order
Robert F. Worth

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

Animal Wise
Virginia Morell

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013

Chained in Silence
Talitha L. Leflouria

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

Children of Dust
Ali Eteraz

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2009

Coming Apart
Roger Rosenblatt

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013

Creating Black Americans
Nell Irvin Painter

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

Crimes Against Nature
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004

Deadly Spin
Wendell Potter

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

Leadership
Doris Kearns Goodwin

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1994

Mother California
Kenneth E. Hartman

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1994

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer
Warren St. John

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004

Out of Africa
Isak Dinesen

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1937

Skeletons on the Zahara
Dean King

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004

Spain in Our Hearts
Adam Hochschild

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

The Art of Memoir
Mary Karr

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found
Mary Beard

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

Mothers and Others
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

Violence Over the Land
Ned Blackhawk

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

Why People Believe Weird Things
Michael Shermer

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997

Beer and Circus
Murray A. Sperber

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2000

Ethics
Aristotle

Nonfiction | Book | Adult

Listening Is an Act of Love
Dave Isay

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007

The Beast in the Garden
David Baron

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004

Designing Your Life
Bill Burnett, Dave Evans

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

The Dance of Legislation
Eric Redman

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1982

The Grand Design
Donald Stoker

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

The Faith Club
Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, Priscilla Warner

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

What Color Is Your Parachute
Richard Nelson Bolles

Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1970

A More Beautiful Question
Warren Berger

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014

They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems
David Bowles

Nonfiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 2018

Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me
Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007

Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient
Norman Cousins

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1979

Phineas Gage
John Fleischman

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2002

Bread and Roses: Sonja Davies, Her Story
Sonja Davies

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1983

Eagle Blue
Michael D'Orso

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2005

Stephen King
Rocky Wood

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 2011

The Problem of Social Cost
R. H. Coase

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1960

Dancing In The Glory Of Monsters
Jason Stearns

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2011

Great at Work
Morten Hansen

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018

The Opposite of Loneliness
Marina Keegan

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 2014

Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits
Allan Greer

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2012

Pendragon: Arthur And His Britain
Joseph P. Clancy

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1972

Far and Away
Andrew Solomon

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

The Fish That Ate The Whale
Rich Cohen

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2012

You Can Heal Your Life
Louise Hay

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1984

Irena's Children
Tilar J. Mazzeo

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2016

Tried By War
James M. Mcpherson

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2008

When Books Went To War
Molly Guptill Manning

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014

Weaponized Lies
Daniel J. Levitin

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

Without You, There Is No Us
Suki Kim

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2014

Generation Kill
Evan Wright

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2004

The Killer of Little Shepherds
Douglas Starr

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

StrengthsFinder 2.0
Tom Rath

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007

Becoming Dr. Q
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, Mim Eichler Rivas

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2011

The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
Kien Nguyen

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2001

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring
Richard Preston

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007

War of a Thousand Deserts
Brian Delay

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

When Pride Still Mattered
David Maraniss

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1999

William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism
Robert D. Richardson Jr.

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2006

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
Ben Mezrich

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2002

The Monk of Mokha
Dave Eggers

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2018

Mankiller: A Chief and Her People
Wilma Mankiller, Michael Wallis

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1993