The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Zink, Nell. Doxology. HarperCollins Publishers, 2019.

The novel begins with a portrayal of Joe Harris, Pam Bailey, and Daniel Sbovoda, three individuals invested in the music industry who are seeking artistic expression through music and the New York community of 1980s punk rock. Pam and Daniel have travelled to live in New York to escape various constraints of their past and their families and are seeking involvement in the music industry, and after being introduced to one another by Joe, the pair begin a rapidly growing romance. Joe, Pam, and Daniel begin a musical project called Marmalade Skye, through which Joe excels as the frontman singer, and they release a single through Daniel’s record label, Lion’s Den.

Amongst an increasingly intense political climate of the early 1990s, Joe’s musical career suddenly blossoms when he is signed by a major record label, Matador Records. His image is churned into a readily attractive rock-star and he acquires extensive attention both for his music and by his fans, many women who crave his attention. He toys with various types of flirtations, but eventually meets Gwen, a young drug addict who subsists her substance dependency by maneuvering a proximity to fame. Pam and Daniel get pregnant with a baby girl, who they happily keep and name Flora. Despite Joe’s descent into a world of fame, Joe maintains a strong relationship with Pam and Daniel and he babysits Flora throughout her childhood.

One fateful day on September 11th in 2001, there is a tremendous and grievous attack on the World Trade Center in New York. The 9/11 attacks create many grievances across New York and America, and it is the catalyst for Pam and Daniel to temporarily move away from New York to live with Pam’s parents, Ginger and Edgar, in Washington D.C. until they feel comfortable returning. There, Flora happily begins attending a better school which focuses on sustainability, and that education fundamentally influences her perceptions of the world.

On the morning of 9/11, however, Gwen gets her dealer to administer heroin to Joe, and, when he overdoses, Gwen leaves his body in their apartment alone, and Joe dies. The news spreads amongst Joe’s community, and Daniel is forced to arrange Joe’s will to avoid Gwen from manipulating the situation to benefit any more from Joe’s fame. However, in the media, Gwen diverts all culpability to avoid her own sense of guilt, and claims that Joe’s overdose was a suicide, which enrages Pam and Daniel for the rest of their lives.

The novel then follows Flora closely as she grows up through high school, is mainly parented by her grandparents Ginger and Edgar, and becomes increasingly indebted to the study of ecological sustainability and environmental science. Her studies take her to University to study soil and she has various sexual and romantic relationships with her teachers. She attends a summer internship in Ethiopia, where her perceptions of climate change policy shift largely.

When she returns, Flora joins the Green Party and begins campaigning for them for the 2016 Presidential Election race. At a Green Party meeting, she meets Bull Gooch, a political ad analyst and strategist, and the pair begin a long-term relationship. During the race between Trump and Hillary, however, they are distracted by the campaign and both have individual affairs with colleagues. Flora’s affair is with Aaron Fleischer, and when Flora becomes pregnant and assumes it is Bull’s baby, she is unaware that Bull is infertile and that the baby is Aaron’s. Once Trump is elected, there is a widespread sense of grief that stretches across all of the characters’ communities and many of them lose their political jobs and hope. As Flora becomes more pregnant, she finds out about Bull’s infertility and catches his in the lie, causing her to question who she should allow to father her child. She breaks up with Bull and gives Aaron a chance to show his commitment to her, but when he leaves her alone in a New York apartment when she is extremely pregnant to attend work, she decides to parent her baby son alone, accompanied by her loving parents and grandparents.