A man is suffering from the tragic end of a love affair. His pain is so great that he doesn't want to live anymore. Instead of committing suicide, however, he seeks the cure for suicide. The cure for suicide offers a way to end one's past life and start over. The man, who is later known as the claimant, goes to a person called the interlocutor. He tells his story to the interlocutor and in the end, he's administered the cure which starts as a shot that erases one's memory of their past life. Those who knew then get a letter telling them that these people are no longer a part of their lives.

After all of this the claimant wakes up in a house with a person called the examiner. The two have a nurse or doctor and patient relationship. She teaches him simple things such as what a chair is and then moves to more difficult topics. The claimant makes progress, but shows troubling signs. His memory appears to be coming back through dreams. The examiner tries to make him think that she gave him the content of his dreams, but in the end he does harm to himself and it's obvious that his memory has come back. She has no choice but to recommend that he be fogged (reset, his memory erased again).

The claimant moves to a new village and he gets a new examiner. She appears to be older than his previous one. With her he learns new life lessons and as he progresses, he moves to new villages. Finally he goes to a village in which he learns about regret and distrust. Here he meets a woman named Hilda who tells him what is really going on in the Process of Villages. She offers him the choice of escape. The claimant falls in love with Hilda and she tempts him but at the same time, the examiner teaches him about lying and grief.

In the end, he decides to turn Hilda in (she claims to be a claimant and tries to get him to run away with her) and stay with the examiner. Still, the regret he feels for turning Hilda in is too much and he has to be fogged again.

Finally, the claimant gets a name, Henry, that he's comfortable with and moves in his final village. His examiner recommends that he always have someone to watch him and says that he can't have any real responsibilities. She manages to get Hilda to come back under the name of Nancy. While Hilda, who was a claimant turned examiner, knows what's going on, the claimant believes that she doesn't remember being Hilda and he is taking care of her. The claimant is happy in the end and so is his examiner.