Start of the story?

At the start of the story, Marty Guitierrez (biologist) and Richard Levine are traveling by helicopter to Rojas in order to study recently discovered dinosaur remains.

The structure of the story is based on chaos theory, which is explained in a series of quotes attributed to protagonist Ian Malcolm. The quotations, taken together, explain the progression of a complex system that falls into a state of destructive chaos and serve as a structural backbone for the story. The descent into chaos is documented in the book through the progression of events at Isla Sorna. Each of the seven sections of the book explains the next chronological step in the descent towards chaos, and the quotations by Malcolm that precede each section give the reader an idea of the plot events which are to follow.