The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Vandermeer, Jeff. Hummingbird Salamander. McClelland & Stewart, 2021.

One day, at her local coffee shop, Jane was handed an envelope with a key and an address that leads her to a storage unit (15). Inside the unit was a box with a hummingbird and a note that read "Hummingbird…Salamander - Silvina" (15). Jane, who had no idea who this mysterious Silvina character was, decided to take the hummingbird and took the message as a beckoning call to find her.

Jane was a software security analyst who is in the business of selling fear of security gaps to customers. She was a mother and a wife, but due to her troubled childhood, they never seemed to be her priority.

Jane had a lot of work, but she could not seem to focus on anything other than the Hummingbird. So instead of working, she used her coworker, Larry's computer to look into Silvina. Jane uncovered that Silvina Vilcapcampa is the daughter of a very affluent family, and she was an animal rights activist who fought against animal trafficking but was largely viewed as an extremist. But her research set off a trap, and Jane learned that a malicious attack was carried out on her coworker's computer. But that did not deter Jane from her quest, and through her research, she found the name Carlton Fusk, a taxidermist from Brooklyn. Since this was the only lead she had, Jane disguised her trip to New York by telling her boss she wanted to attend a security conference.

Jane blew off the conference to talk to Carlton Fusk. Jane showed him a picture of the hummingbird, but Fusk responded by pulling a gun on her and told her never to come back. Despite the dangerous nature of her investigation, Jane enjoyed the thrill and felt herself being pulled even deeper. On the flight home, Jane realized that the numbers behind the hummingbird's eyes matched Silvina's address.

The next day, Jane headed for Silvina's apartment and found three taxidermied foxes sitting in a row, much like the dots on the note in the storage unit. Jane found a journal buried in the planter on the balcony.

Jane headed for the gym to get the hummingbird she stashed in her locker along with her go-bag. Sure enough, the gym had been broken into and the hummingbird was gone. As she walked to her car on the hill, Jane was pursued by a man who warned her to stop looking into Silvina. As Jane hurried to her car, she heard another person behind the fence beside her, followed by a second person and a short breath and "a strangled choke" (124).

Back at home, Jane found a gun placed in the circle of cigarettes and received a text from the man who had put it there. He called themself Hellbender and said he was trying to protect her, and that the gun was a necessary precaution. While Jane was out on her wild chase, she was let go from work for putting the company and employees in danger.

After visiting Unitopia, one of Silvina's prized properties, Jane visited an abandoned warehouse that belonged to Vilcapcampa enterprises. She is intercepted by Langer, a dangerous man associated with Silvina and illicit biotech, was outside closing in on her. In a rush of panic, Jane dialed home and told her husband to leave and run away with their daughter- it was no longer safe for them. She hung up and hid in the pile of dead animals in the middle of the room, but something smashed her skull and she went dark.

Jane woke up in Silvina's apartment, constrained by the man who ambushed her on the hill who, as it turned out, worked for Vilcapcampa Senior. Over a video call, he tried to convince Jane to stop her pursuit, but instead, Jane made a break for the balcony, jumped off, and fled toward the west coast.

For a few months, Jane laid low and hid on Silvina's houseboat. After months of silence, Jane tracked a man for a woman who thought he might be cheating, but she quickly found out it was an ambush. As she made her escape, she recognized a black SUV that had been tailing her parked at a nearby motel. Jane smashed in the door of the motel room and found Hillman, or Roger Simpson, dead on the chair. Jane searched through his belongings and found a series of numbers in his bible and an insurance card. Jane rearranged the numbers and realized Silvina was trying to send her back to her family farm- a place with horrible memories and a place she had not spoken of in decades.

On the farm, Jane's father had been holding a note from Silvina for a little while. As it turned out, Silvina lived just up from them, and her deceased brother, Ned, used to do work for the family. The note was a confession of sorts and told Jane that Roger Simpson was the one responsible for killing her brother. For all these years, Jane had blamed it on her grandfather but it was not him.

A few years went by and Jane, all by her lonesome, still had a burning desire for a purpose. Eventually, she made her way back to where it started at storage unit 7, but this time realized there was a passcode keypad that had been there the whole time. Jane entered the code and found Silvina dead in front of the underground world she had created. In front of Silvina was a single vial that contained alkaloids from a salamander that were hallucinogenic to humans. Silvina had taken one herself, and Jane faced a decision: follow through with the renewal and change that Silvina wanted her to see by taking the vial or move on with her life.