An orogene draws on an obelisk's power to tear a massive rift in the continent, destroying Yumenes and beginning a catastrophic Season.

Essun returns home to find her three-year-old son Uche beaten to death by her husband Jija.

Schaffa, a Guardian, arrives at Damaya's family barn and tells her she will be taken to the Fulcrum for training.

Essun destroys Tirimo's aquifer in a surge of orogeny and leaves the comm forever in search of Nassun.

Syenite meets Alabaster, the Fulcrum's only ten-ringer, and the two are assigned to clear Allia's harbor together.

Alabaster and Syen discover a young boy strapped to a chair and lobotomized to function as a node maintainer.

Syenite reaches out to the unknown harbor obstruction and accidentally raises a massive broken obelisk from Allia's seafloor.

Guardian Edki stabs Alabaster and attacks Syen; Syen reaches into the broken obelisk and triggers a volcanic explosion.

Essun arrives at what appears to be an abandoned comm and meets Ykka, the orogene leader of Castrima.

Stone eater Antimony carries the injured Syen and Alabaster to Meov, an island pirate comm that reveres orogenes.

Damaya passes her first ring test ahead of schedule, completing her years of training as a Fulcrum grit.

During a raid with Innon, Syen sinks militia ships and later buries volcanic magma beneath the ruins of Allia.

Four Fulcrum ships attack Meov; Innon is killed in battle and Alabaster is dragged underground by stone eater Antimony.

Syen kills her infant son Coru to prevent the Guardians from enslaving him, then destroys the fleet with the obelisk.

Essun finds the gravely injured Alabaster in Castrima; he confirms he opened the rift and asks for her help.

The novel opens with an unnamed orogene tearing a continental rift that destroys Yumenes, while simultaneously Essun finds her son Uche beaten to death and learns that her husband Jija has fled with their daughter Nassun. After a violent confrontation at Tirimo's gate, Essun sets out south to find her daughter and avenge her son. In the Syenite storyline, a four-ring orogene is paired with the brilliant Alabaster on a mission to Allia, where she accidentally raises a broken obelisk and triggers a Guardian attack and volcanic explosion. Syen and Alabaster escape to the pirate island of Meov, where they build a life with orogene Innon, but the Fulcrum eventually discovers them and attacks, forcing Syen to kill her son Coru to spare him from slavery before destroying the fleet. Damaya's arc runs beneath both storylines, tracking her path from a terrified child taken from her family to a trained orogene who passes her ring test and takes a new name. In the present, Essun reaches the underground comm of Castrima and is reunited with the gravely injured Alabaster, who confirms he caused the rift and begs for her help with a still-mysterious larger plan.

The headline events driving the Broken Earth's collapse and Essun's quest.

A being slowly crawls from a split rock near Tirimo and begins walking toward the comm after the rift opens.

Doctor Lerna discovers the grief-stricken Essun after Uche's death and takes her to his house to rest and recover.

Hoa appears beside Essun while she rests on the road and convinces her to let him travel with her.

Schaffa tells Damaya the story of Misalem and Shemshena to warn her that Guardians can and will kill orogenes.

Essun takes Hoa to a creek to wash and discovers his skin and hair are pure white, marking him as inhuman.

Traveling near ancient ruins, Alabaster challenges Syen's assumption that Sanzed society could never accept orogenes in positions of power.

Deputy governor Asael calls Syen a slur in Allia; Syen threatens to abandon the mission until the lieutenant governor intervenes.

Hoa grabs an attacking kirkhusa and turns it entirely to stone, shattering it and revealing his supernatural nature to Essun.

Damaya exposes grits Maxixe and Crack for orchestrating a bullying scheme against her; Crack subsequently disappears from the Fulcrum.

Equatorial refugees describe to Essun a red light spreading east and west across the horizon before a vast ash cloud engulfed them.

Ykka leads Essun's group through underground tunnels to reveal Castrima, an ancient inhabited city carved inside an enormous geode.

Syen persuades Innon to let her join his raid on a coastal cargo ship, against his better judgment.

Essun realizes that the commless geomest Tonkee is actually Binof, the Leadership child she briefly befriended as Damaya at the Fulcrum.

Lerna reappears unexpectedly in Castrima, having fled Tirimo after his friendship with Essun made him a target.

Syen settles in Tirimo under the name Essun; Hoa reveals to the reader that he has been her narrator all along.

From the novel's opening moments, secondary threads weave through the main story: a mysterious being emerges from a split rock near Tirimo, while doctor Lerna rescues the stunned Essun and helps her recover enough to begin her journey. On the road, Essun discovers her strange young companion Hoa's supernatural nature when he turns a carnivorous creature to stone, and the eccentric commless woman Tonkee joins their group after testing contaminated aquifers near an abandoned roadhouse. In the Syenite storyline, Alabaster challenges Syen's assumptions about power and orogenes near ancient ruins, and tensions flare in Allia when the deputy governor openly insults Syen before the harbor mission can begin. At the Fulcrum, a bullying scheme by fellow grits Maxixe and Crack ends with Crack's quiet disappearance—a chilling reminder of what the Fulcrum does to orogenes who lose control. Refugees fleeing the new Season describe the catastrophic red light and ash cloud to Essun's group, and Ykka leads them underground to reveal the hidden geode city of Castrima, where Lerna unexpectedly reappears. The Syenite arc closes with Syen settling into her new identity as Essun in Tirimo, and Hoa stepping forward as the novel's narrator to reveal he has watched over her for a decade.

The journeys, relationships, and community encounters that shape Essun's world.

An orogene and stone eater Antimony approach Yumenes; the orogene asks whether stone eaters will rule once he has destroyed the world.

Essun admits to Lerna that she used orogeny to secretly deflect the catastrophic shake and protect Tirimo from destruction.

Schaffa breaks Damaya's hand during their journey to the Fulcrum to demonstrate that Guardians have absolute authority over orogenes.

Alabaster explains that the Fulcrum lobotomizes unstable orogenes so they can involuntarily and indefinitely quell earthquakes as node maintainers.

Alabaster is poisoned in Allia and stuns Syen by using orogeny internally to purge the toxin from his own body.

Alabaster warns Syen to keep secret that she can access the obelisks' power after the Fulcrum orders them to remain in Allia.

Damaya uses orogeny to help Binof find a hidden door inside the Fulcrum's Main building, leading them to a chamber containing the socket.

Guardian Timay accuses Damaya of being called by the socket; Schaffa kills Timay by removing a malfunctioning implant from her skull.

Damaya tells Schaffa the orogenic name she has chosen—Syenite—before stepping forward to face her first ring test.

Ykka explains that her orogeny inexplicably draws other orogenes and stone eaters toward Castrima, though she cannot fully explain how.

Syen wakes nauseous after her first night with Innon and Alabaster, realizing she has become pregnant.

Syen spots a Guardian standing on the road near the ruins of Allia, realizing the Fulcrum now knows their location on Meov.

Tonkee reveals two obelisks were converging on Tirimo; Essun realizes one was drawn to her son Uche's undeveloped orogenic power.

Hoa tells Essun a dying man who claims she owes him for Corundum needs to speak with her, revealing it is Alabaster.

Alabaster asks Essun whether she has ever heard of something called a moon, ending the novel with a profound new mystery.

The novel's turning points begin before its main action, as Alabaster and Antimony approach Yumenes with a world-ending purpose, while Essun quietly admits to Lerna that she secretly used orogeny to protect Tirimo from the catastrophic shake. The Syenite storyline delivers its most disturbing revelation when Alabaster explains the Fulcrum's practice of lobotomizing orogenes to function as involuntary earthquake suppressors, and later shocks Syen by purging poison from his own body using orogeny in ways she had never imagined possible. In the Damaya storyline, Schaffa breaks Damaya's hand to assert absolute Guardian authority, and later Damaya and Binof uncover a hidden socket chamber beneath the Fulcrum where obelisks were made—an encounter that ends violently when Schaffa kills a malfunctioning Guardian on the spot. Damaya's arc closes as she whispers her chosen name to Schaffa before her ring test, while Syen's pivots when she spots a Guardian near the ruins of Allia and realizes the Fulcrum has found them. In the present, Tonkee's revelation about obelisks converging on Tirimo forces Essun to grasp that one was drawn to her murdered son Uche, and Hoa finally delivers Alabaster's message, reuniting two people bound by grief and guilt. The novel ends on its greatest mystery when Alabaster asks Essun whether she has ever heard of something called a moon.

The key discoveries, decisions, and revelations that redefine the story's stakes.