The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Hawley, Noah. Anthem. Grand Central Publishing, 2022.

In the wake of the election of Donald Trump and the Covid-19 pandemic, a new threat arises in America: a wave of mass suicides among the country's children. As the suicide rate rapidly increases and the U.S. government slides into disorder, it becomes increasingly clear that the children—who rally under the banner of an organization called A11—are committing suicide as an act of desperation and protest against the realities of political life.

One of the first to kill themselves is a girl named Claire Oliver, the daughter of a prominent pharmaceutical mogul named Ty Oliver. Her body is found by her younger brother, Simon, who does not process the death well and is sent to a recovery center for wealthy children in Chicago, called Float. While at Float, Simon meets a girl named Louise, who comes from a middle-class background in California and has developed a compulsive sexual addiction after being neglected by her mother and subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of E.L. Mobley, whom Louise calls the Wizard. Simon also makes the acquaintance of a boy called the Prophet. The Prophet claims to be able to hear the voice of God through the phenomenon of the hum, and works quickly to radicalize Simon and Louise into escaping from the facility with him in order to carry out a mission to fight the powers of evil—namely, he says, someone called the Wizard.

The Prophet busts Simon and Louise out of Float with the help of a boy named Duane, whose van they escape in. This prompts Ty to task his head of security, a man named Gabe Lin, with recapturing his son. The children meet up with a violent radical (also a child) who calls himself Randall Flagg. Flagg informs the Prophet that they have located a boy named Javier in an immigrant detention center in West Texas. After stocking up on supplies at a Walmart—including a healthy collection of firearms—Flagg and the Prophet coordinate a successful raid on the detention center there, during which Simon is forced to kill a security guard with a shotgun. Javier and the other children there are freed, and Javier is able to lead the group in the direction of the Wizard's nearby compound.

While all of this unfolds, a separate and parallel drama occurs surrounding the Nadir family. Margot Nadir is a prominent judge who is informed, on her way to visit her daughter, Story, that she is up for a seat on the Supreme Court. Her husband, Remy, and her son, Hadrian, are supportive of this until they arrive at Story's house and find that she and her boyfriend, a man named Felix Moor, are missing. Margot decides to go forward with her confirmation hearings even as her daughter is missing and the subject of an extensive FBI search, and the missing Story Nadir becomes a piece of national news.

Upon arriving in West Texas, Simon, Flagg, and the Prophet come across none other than Story Nadir and Felix Moor. "Felix"—who is, unbeknownst to Story, actually named Samson DeWitt—is on a mission to save his sister, Bathsheba, from the Wizard. Bathsheba and Samson are the estranged children of Avon DeWitt, a sovereign citizen from Florida who never had either of his children registered with social security numbers. Upon meeting Samson and Story, the Prophet teams up with them, and their group organizes an attack on the Wizard's compound that evening. They are intercepted, however, by Gabe Lin, and most of them are captured and split up. Only Duane and Louise manage to escape.

Simon and Story are brought to what Ty calls a "reeducation center" and are subjected to tranquilization and hypnosis at the hands of a woman called the Witch. The Witch has a live-in servant named Rose who is an undocumented immigrant. As it happens, Rose's sister is a woman named Girlie; Girlie is in a relationship with Avon DeWitt. Rose calls Girlie to come and rescue her from the Witch at the same time as Simon hatches a plot to escape. Simon manages to kick a gas coupling in the wall loose so that the house explodes when the Witch lights a cigarette. He and Story escape, charring the Witch and knocking Rose unconscious, and are met by Avon and Girlie, who have traveled to find them despite an outbreak of violence across the country in the wake of an astonishing event: Kurt LaRue, a right-wing senator, has bombed the Senate in the middle of Margot Nadir's SCOTUS hearings, triggering a wave of alt-right violence . Avon is unsure of what to do with Simon and Story before he hears them mention Bathsheba and decides to join them in order to save his daughter.

Duane and Louise manage to get to Palm Springs and post about it on a secret group Instagram. They steal an Amazon truck and get in contact with a man named the Troll, who was the Wizard's recruiter for many years, on the pretext that Louise wants to get back in touch with the Wizard. They kidnap the Troll and proceed to torture him for information. Meanwhile, the scattered members of the group—Randall Flagg, Samson, and the Prophet—separately manage to escape captivity and make their way to Palm Springs. They arrive alongside Avon, Simon, and Story and begin to coordinate a final assault on the Wizard.

Louise uses the Troll to gain access to the compound where the Wizard is staying before unleashing a carefully-coordinated violent attack on it. The Wizard tries to escape to an airfield but is apprehended there by Randall Flagg, Simon, and the Prophet, who manage to kill his bodyguards and rescue Bathsheba. Bathsheba wants the Wizard killed, but instead, they use his wealth to purchase a large parcel of land in Alaska, where they fly to begin a new society.