S. is presented in the form of a novel called
Ship of Theseus, written by a fictional, elusive author named
V. M. Straka and published in 1949. Beyond the black slipcover with the
S. title, no reference is made to Dorst or Abrams, and the only reference to the book's true publishing information appears in fine print inside the back cover. The publication information is printed under a mock-up of a high school library's check-out history of the book, spanning the years 1957 to 2000. Removed from the slipcover,
S. is designed to appear entirely as a copy of the standalone novel
Ship of Theseus written by Straka that was borrowed from and never returned to the Laguna Verde High School Library. The pages are worn and yellowed with library stamps in the front and back cover and stains on the pages. The book's spine is labeled with a library sticker marking the novel's location number in the
Dewey Decimal Classification. The novel can be read alone in its entirety. Presented as Straka's nineteenth and final novel before his mysterious death,
Ship of Theseus tells the story of an amnesiac on a strange journey to discover himself. In the
metafictional narrative, Straka's enigmatic life and death are considered one of the literary world's greatest mysteries and enshrouded by conspiracy theories and claims of espionage and assassination. His identity is indicated to be the subject of much scholarly debate as evidenced by a foreword and footnotes from F. X. Caldeira, described as Straka's chosen translator for many of his books, including
Ship of Theseus, though even Caldeira never encountered Straka face-to-face. A second storyline takes place in the book's margins. Eric is a disgraced graduate student who has spent his life studying Straka and his literary works. Jen is a college senior contemplating the next step of her life. The two begin to trade a copy of
Ship of Theseus back and forth without meeting, using the book's margins to carry out discussions about who Straka was by using handwritten notes, arrows, and symbols. The pair hope to solve the mystery of Straka's identity before Eric's graduate professor, who allegedly stole his research and had him expelled, publishes his research on Straka. The hand-written marginalia are not always chronological. Different pen colors and handwriting styles denote the dialogues between the two and how they change on subsequent re-readings of the novel. A third story happens within Straka's novel and the conversations between Eric and Jen, a story about Straka and Caldeira. This storyline serves as the most hidden and core section of the whole novel and answers the mystery of Straka's disappearance. It reveals the background of the world Straka and Caldeira lived in and the relationship between the novelist and the translator. Concurrent with Jen and Eric's timeline of reading and annotating the novel, there are postcards, handwritten letters, maps, and photocopied articles and book excerpts physically folded and loosely inserted between the book's bound pages as Jen and Eric provide evidence and clues to each other while exchanging the book. ==Development==