The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by the
protagonist of the next, progressing in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each interrupted at a pivotal moment. After the sixth story, the others are resolved in reverse chronological order.
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (Part 1) In the mid-19th century
Chatham Islands, American lawyer Adam Ewing keeps a journal while his ship is repaired. He witnesses a
Māori overseer flog enslaved
Moriori Autua. Aboard the ship, Ewing's only friend, Dr. Henry Goose, diagnoses him with a fatal parasite. Meanwhile, Autua stows away in Ewing's cabin. After Ewing informs the Captain, Autua proves himself a skilled seaman and is allowed to work for passage to
Hawaii.
Letters from Zedelghem (Part 1) In 1931
Zedelghem, near
Bruges, disowned and penniless English musician Robert Frobisher writes to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith. He becomes
amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, expanding a basic melody Ayrs gives him into
Der Todtenvogel (The Death-Bird), which earns critical praise. Encouraged, Frobisher begins composing his own music. He has an affair with Ayrs' wife, Jocasta, to their daughter Eva's suspicion. He secretly sells Ayrs' rare books, discovers the first half of The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, and asks Sixsmith to find the rest. As summer ends, Jocasta thanks him for reviving Ayrs' creativity, and Frobisher agrees to stay until the following year.
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery (Part 1) In 1975 Buenas Yerbas, California, journalist Luisa Rey meets elderly Rufus Sixsmith in a stalled elevator and tells him about her late father, a war correspondent. Sixsmith warns her that the Seaboard HYDRA nuclear plant is unsafe, then is later found dead in an apparent suicide. Suspecting foul play, Luisa believes the plant's executives are eliminating whistleblowers. From Sixsmith's hotel room, she retrieves Frobisher's letters. Plant employee Isaac Sachs gives her a copy of Sixsmith's report, but before she can go public, assassin Bill Smoke rams her car—containing the report—off a bridge.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (Part 1) In early 21st-century London, 65-year-old
vanity publisher Timothy Cavendish sees a sales boom after his client kills a critic. Threatened by the client's brothers, he seeks refuge, but his brother Denholme tricks him into entering an abusive
nursing home, which Cavendish initially mistakes for a hotel. A failed escape attempt leads to public punishment. He mentions reading
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery. As he settles in and begins plotting an escape, he suffers a stroke.
An Orison of Sonmi-451 (Part 1) In 22nd-century Nea So Copros, a Korean state rooted in corporate culture, an Archivist records Sonmi-451's testimony via an orison, a holographic recording device. Sonmi-451 is a clone who had been working as a waitress at Papa Song's, part of a society where vat-grown clones, "fabricants", serve as cheap labor. Their awareness is suppressed through a chemical-laced food called "Soap," and after a twelve-year contract, they are promised retirement in Honolulu. Sonmi is rescued by Professor Mephi and student Hae-Joo Im, who help her gain self-awareness and attend university. She watches The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, but the session is interrupted when a student announces Mephi's arrest. Authorities are ordered to interrogate Hae-Joo and kill Sonmi on sight.
Sloosha's Crossin' an' Evrythin' After On post-apocalyptic
Big Island, the peaceful Valley Folk worship a goddess called Sonmi, and her account is their sacred text. Zachry Bailey blames himself for his father's death and brother's enslavement by the cannibalistic Kona tribe. Members of a technologically advanced society called Prescients occasionally visit, and Zachry is wary of one named Meronym, who asks him to guide her up Mauna Kea. After she saves his poisoned sister, he agrees. At the ruins of the
Mauna Kea Observatories, Meronym explains the orison Zachry found and reveals Sonmi's true story. On their return, the Kona ambush the Valley Folk. Zachry and Meronym escape, and she takes him to a safer island. Years later, Zachry's son recalls this tale, suggesting it may be true—he now possesses Sonmi's orison.
An Orison of Sonmi-451 (Part 2) Hae-Joo Im reveals that he and Mephi are part of Union, a rebel group opposing the corporate government. Disguised, Hae-Joo takes Sonmi to a ship where she witnesses how retired fabricants are slaughtered and turned into Soap, with leftovers used in the food served at such establishments as Papa Song's. Union aims to awaken all fabricants and thus depose the country's corpocracy. They ask Sonmi to write abolitionist Declarations, which she does. She is later arrested in an elaborately filmed government raid. Sonmi tells the Archivist she believes the government orchestrated her journey to stoke fear of fabricants. Her final wish is to finish watching Cavendish's story.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (Part 2) Having mostly recovered from his mild stroke, Cavendish teams up with fellow nursing home residents—Ernie, Veronica, and the senile Mr. Meeks—to escape. They seize a resident's son's car and celebrate at a pub, where staff nearly recapture them. In a rare lucid moment, Mr. Meeks rallies the drinkers, sparking a brawl that secures their escape. Cavendish later reveals his secretary blackmailed the gangsters, ensuring he will return to his former life safely. Back home, he reads the second half of Luisa Rey's story and plans to publish it, whilst also writing a screenplay about his experience.
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery (Part 2) Rey escapes her sinking car but loses the report, and Sachs dies in a plane explosion orchestrated by Smoke. After Seaboard acquires her newspaper, Rey is fired. Smoke booby-traps a copy of the report at a bank, but Joe Napier—head of plant security and an old friend of her father—rescues Rey. Rey finds another copy aboard Sixsmith's yacht, Starfish. Smoke and Napier kill each other in a shootout. Rey exposes the corrupt corporate leaders, and Sixsmith's niece later gives her the final eight letters from Frobisher to Sixsmith.
Letters from Zedelghem (Part 2) Frobisher continues assisting Ayrs while composing his
Cloud Atlas Sextet. He falls for Eva, believing she shares his feelings, despite his affair with her mother. Jocasta, suspicious, threatens him. Ayrs increasingly plagiarizes Frobisher's work and threatens to accuse him of raping Jocasta if he resists. Despondent, Frobisher flees and rents a hotel room to finish his sextet and dreams of reuniting with Eva, only to learn of her engagement to a Swiss man. Ill and disillusioned, he decides to take his own life. Before shooting himself in a bathtub, he completes his sextet and writes one final letter to Sixsmith with the sextet and
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing enclosed.
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (Part 2) The ship makes port at
Raiatea, where Ewing observes missionaries oppressing the indigenous peoples. On the ship, Ewing falls further ill and realizes that Dr. Goose is poisoning him to steal his possessions. Autua saves Ewing by making him swallow salt water, an
emetic, to expel the poison administered to him by Goose. Acknowledging that he owes Autua his life, Ewing resolves to join the
abolitionist movement. == Background and writing ==