The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Fowler, Karen Joy. Booth. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2022.

Booth is divided into six books and features chapters and sections told from the perspectives of Asia, Edwin, and Rosalie Booth accompanied by brief interludes explaining relevant events in American history, particularly in the life and career of Abraham Lincoln.

Book One begins in the 1830s, when a man named Junius Booth (whom the text refers to as Father) moves his wife and children to a remote farm in Maryland. Father is a prominent stage actor and an alcoholic, known nationally both for his skills as a performer and for his frequent bouts of madness. Their two oldest children, June and Rosalie (the latter of whom functions as Book One's perspective character), are witness to the deaths of several younger Booth children, each of which drives Father further into alcoholism and Mother further into madness. June becomes increasingly drawn to a life in the theater while Rosalie, always quiet and sullen, withdraws further into herself as she is tasked with assuming many of Mother's domestic duties. The Booths have four other surviving children in succession. One is Edwin, a quiet boy who is prophesied to see ghosts. One is Asia, a precocious young girl who refuses to obey her mother. One is John Wilkes, who goes by Johnny (and later John), a natural rebel with a thirst for adventure. And one is Joe, a straightforward, uncomplicated child. The Booth family lives comfortably on their farm alongside two Black servants, Joe and Ann Hall, until the sudden arrival of another family on their doorstep who introduce themselves as the Mitchells and claim to be related to Father. Much to the confusion of the children, Mother allows the Mitchells to commandeer the household.

In Book Two, the Booth family moves to Baltimore. Edwin and John develop something of a rivalry; John is the favorite child, and Edwin struggles to assert his own independence in a space where John's brusque adventurousness often puts him in the role of Edwin's defender. Meanwhile, a woman named Adelaide arrives and begins accusing Father of adultery, insisting that she is his real wife. In the midst of all this, Edwin is sent on tour with Father to function as his assistant, which experience translates in reality to acting as his father's keeper. After some time, Father becomes so drunk that he starts giving Edwin his roles instead. John develops an interest in the South, and increasingly adopts pro-slavery views as a result of his friendships with Virginia boys at the boarding school he attends. Father divorces Adelaide and kicks the Mitchells off of the farm. He begins building a larger house. Eventually, June, who has moved to California and established modest success for himself as an actor there, invites Father and Edwin to come join him. The pair make a harrowing passage across Panama and tour across California. Edwin decides to stay out west and sends his father home alone. After a year touring with a stage company through various mining towns, Edwin descends the mountains to learn that his father has died on the passage back to Baltimore. The guilt he feels for this will haunt him through the remainder of his life.

Book Three focuses on Asia, who is both precocious and tomboyish, fixated on elevating the family name. After Father's death, the Booths remaining in Baltimore move back to the farmhouse. Asia and John forge a close bond and spend their time socializing with various neighbors in and around the farm; they each become entangled in various acts of disruption, and they are both seen as heartbreakers by their various suitors. The pair endeavor to write a memoir about Father, but Mother burns all his letters before they can. When Joe is sent away to boarding school, John becomes responsible for the upkeep of the farm and does not take well to it. Instead, he becomes increasingly involved in politics, joining the Know-Nothing Party. Because of his poor farm management, the family passes a difficult winter and they nearly starve. Only Edwin's return from California with a great deal of money in the spring prevents them from falling into ruin.

Book Four sees Edwin's career excel beyond any of the family's expectations; he is made famous by his friendship with a prominent critic named Adam Badeau. While Edwin excels in his acting career, John moves to Richmond and becomes further entrenched in his pro-slavery views. The Booth family moves back to Baltimore, and Asia is persuaded to wed Edwin's old friend Sleeper Clarke, which she consents to in order to please Edwin and because she believes John is going to marry her best friend Jean. Asia is appalled when John abandons Jean and Edwin marries an actress named Mary, whom Asia disdains because of her profession. Asia also increasingly struggles with the realization that her marriage to Sleeper has not brought her the elevation in status and voice within the family that she had hoped it would. As such, rifts begin to form between the family's siblings.

Book Five begins with John's return to Baltimore after an accidental shooting. Edwin's career is continuing to excel, but it takes a blow when Mary dies while convalescing from an illness in Boston. Edwin becomes obsessed with mysticism and retreats to his residence in New York, where he has also moved Mother and Rosalie. While Adam Badeau and his servant, Randall, are visiting the Booth home in New York, a wave of anti-Union draft riots breaks out. John moves among the anti-Union crowd in order to gather information and protect the family. Even so, a short time afterward, he and Edwin get in a spat about Edwin's support of Lincoln and John moves out of the house. John is increasingly frank with Asia about his work with the Confederacy; he has been working as a blockade runner and using Edwin's fame to get into high places and gather information. Asia does not tell the family, though, because of her rift with Edwin. This lack of communication and John's rejection by the pro-Union wing of the family leads to him assassinating Abraham Lincoln.

Book Six observes the fallout from the assassination; Sleeper Clarke attempts to divorce Asia, Edwin's acting career reaches a twilight, and Asia endeavors to write several memoirs about the Booths in an attempt to vindicate their name. Each of the siblings struggles to reconcile their memories of John with what he has done.