The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Saunders, George. Liberation Day. Penguin Random House LLC., 2022.

George Saunders's Liberation Day is a collection of nine short stories. The stories collected herein are all written from distinct points of view, and take inventive approaches to structure, form, and linguistic style. The following summary presents a streamlined depiction of each story, and relies upon the present tense.

In "Liberation Day," first person narrator and main character Jeremy is one of Mr. and Mrs. U.'s human subjects. The Untermeyer couple has erased the memories of select individuals, and uses these individuals in order to stage social experiments. The couple primarily crafts historical reenactments, featuring the Speakers and Singers. Jeremy is a Speaker and does not know to question his reality. He even convinces himself that he is in love with Mrs. U., and begins to long for a future with her. By the end of the short story, Jeremy has gained a new awareness of his life with the Untermeyers, and is unsure if he can be loyal to Mr. U. any longer.

In "The Mom of Bold Action," one day while the main character Ginnie is at home trying to write a new short story, her son Derek returns with his face covered in blood. He tells Ginnie that an old man pushed him down in town. When Ginnie's husband Keith and the police fail to intervene in the way Ginnie wants, she is overcome by helplessness. In order to channel her feelings, she writes an essay titled "The Mom of Bold Action." The essay ultimately inspires her husband to attack Derek's alleged aggressor, thus complicating Ginnie's sense of goodness and justice.

In "Love Letter," the unnamed first person narrator replies to his grandson Robbie's email in the form of a letter. Robbie has written his grandfather seeking advice. After Robbie's friends are caught for being undocumented, Robbie becomes desperate to help them. Instead of urging Robbie to get involved, however, the narrator encourages Robbie to err towards caution.

In "A Thing at Work," after Tim's colleague Gen tells him that their mutual colleague Brenda has been stealing coffee and paper towels from the office, he feels compelled to fire her. However, when he realizes the similarities between Brenda's difficult life and his mother's difficult life, Tim decides to dismiss the issue. Not long later, however, he ends up firing Brenda at his boss's behest. Brenda feels mortified in the wake of losing her job.

In "Sparrow," the narrator is surprised when a local woman they call Sparrow falls in love with a man named Randy. Over time, Randy falls in love with Sparrow, too. They start a life together, and the narrator feels hopeful that their relationship will last.

In "Ghoul," the main character and first person narrator Brian and his compatriots live underground. However, the characters are unaware of the true nature of their reality. When Brian learns that he and his companions were sealed underground by the government during a war or plague, he becomes determined to disseminate this information even if it means risking his life.

In "Mother's Day," on Mother's Day, Alma goes for a walk with her daughter Pammy. When they pass by the home of Alma's late husband Paul Sr.'s former lover Debi, and see Debi sweeping outside, Alma's mind is flooded with memories. Though years have passed since Paul's infidelity and his death, Alma has yet to let go of her bitterness. When a hailstorm starts, Alma clutches a fence outside Debi's house, has a heart attack, and collapses. Before her death, she has a vision in which her children and late husband urge her to forgive. Alma realizes the only way to escape her anger is to escape herself.

In "Elliott Spencer," main character and first person narrator Elliott Spencer has no memory of his former life. After his addiction destroys his relationships with his mother and lover, Elliott lived on the streets. He then agreed to be taken in by an organization who would wipe his memory and use him as a pawn in their social and political experiments. The memory wipe, however, is not thorough, and Elliott soon recalls who he was and the life he lived. At the story's end, he realizes there is still time to redeem himself, and leaves the organization.

In "My House," the unnamed first person narrator longs to buy a beautiful house owned by a man named Mel Hays. Mel is eager to sell because his wife is sick, he recently retired, and he cannot afford the house's upkeep. Despite Mel's seeming interest in selling to the narrator, he refuses all of the narrator's offers on the house. Over the years following, the narrator watches the house deteriorate from afar, unable to understand why Mel would not sell him the place.