The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Zhang, C Pam. Land of Milk and Honey. Riverhead Books, 2023.

C Pam Zhang's novel Land of Milk and Honey is told from the first person point of view of the unnamed protagonist. Written in both the past and present tenses, the novel is set in a dystopian world. The novel's primary action takes place in an unnamed mountain country, located on the border between Italy and France. Much like the following summary, the narrative abides by a largely linear narrative plot line.

When the narrator is an old woman, a young woman approaches her and asks about her past as a chef in an elite, controversial mountain society. Although decades have passed since this era of her life, the narrator is instantly transported.

At 29 years old, the narrator was disillusioned and dislocated. Because of the worsening global environmental and food crises, the narrator felt increasingly detached from reality. Having studied and worked as a chef since she dropped out of high school, the narrator suddenly felt as if she could not perform her job and craft the way she wanted to.

Ready for a new start, the narrator quit her restaurant job in England and applied for a job as a chef in an enigmatic mountain community. When the employer accepted her application, the narrator abandoned her life in England and headed for the Italian-French border. She had read some factoids about the mountain online, but did not even know its name.

The narrator was initially skeptical of life in the mountain country. The society was meant to be a research community, where wealthy entrepreneurs and scientists might not only live outside the dying world beyond, but bioengineer food for the future. In reality, the narrator quickly learned, these scientific tests, advancements, and developments were only for the sustenance and survival of the mountain residents.

Although the narrator had quandaries about the mountain, she eventually settled into her new life. Her friendship with the employer's daughter Aida and her new job awakened her to parts of herself that had long been dormant. Furthermore, the employer had offered to pay her the exact amount she needed to cover her late mother's outstanding debts. The narrator would do anything and sacrifice anything to secure this money and the financial freedom it promised. Therefore, when the employer told her she must discard her identity and adopt that of his ex-wife Eun-Young, the narrator agreed. The idea was to use Eun-Young as a symbol to manipulate the hearts, minds, and loyalties of the residents and investors.

For a time, the narrator eased into her role as Eun-Young. Meanwhile, she and Aida began an affair. The relationship made the narrator realize how void her life had been and for how long. Aida was nine years her junior and different from her. Her privileged background particularly set them apart. However, being with Aida made the narrator realize how much longing had been lodged in her psyche and her body.

Over time, however, the narrator's internal unrest began to return. In an attempt to maintain stasis and thus to survive on the mountain, she started to rely upon smoking and drinking. She realized how much of herself she was giving up and how much of herself she missed. A series of conflicts and dramas with the employer and Aida awakened the narrator to the dysfunction of the society. She began to understand that the employer would always control Aida and that the society was in large part founded on exclusion and violence.

The narrator broke her contract with the employer and left the mountain. She moved to Paris, France and opened her own restaurant. Roughly five years later, she moved back to Los Angeles, California where she had grown up. She had a daughter. As her daughter grew up, she and the narrator developed a close kinship. Although the narrator had attempted to bury her past since leaving the mountain, the daughter urged her to share these stories and thus to reconcile with them.