The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Lee, Chang-rae. My Year Abroad. Riverhead Books, 2021.

In Chang-rae Lee's novel My Year Abroad, first person narrator Tiller Bardmon tells both the story of his life in a town called Stagno, and that of his time overseas in Shenzhen, China. The novel is written in an atypical narrative structure, shifting frequently between scenes from different eras in Tiller's life. The narrative also uses both the past and present tenses. The following summary adheres to a more linear form, and strictly employs the present tense.

As a young boy, Tiller grows up with his parents in Dunbar, New Jersey. Though he has always wanted to be close with his mother, she is distant and troubled. Then one day she disappears, and Tiller finds himself almost entirely alone. He and his father never talk about her, learning a new detached form of intimacy.

Tiller stays in Dunbar throughout school, and later attends community college here as well. A few weeks before he is meant to leave for his European study abroad trip, Tiller meets Chinese businessman, Pong Lou on the country club golf course. Immediately impressed by Tiller, Pong invites him for drinks, and gives him his business card. Not long after, Pong asks him to sample his new frozen yogurt flavors at his shop, WTF Yo!. Tiller impresses Pong again, and Pong asks him to meet his family. The two drink together, and Pong decides Tiller can be his associate.

Instead of going on his school trip, Tiller agrees to join Pong on his business venture to Honolulu, and then to Shenzhen. While overseas, Tiller finds himself growing increasingly attached to Pong. He believes everything Pong says, and appreciates Pong's authenticity, openness, and encouragement. Eventually, Tiller, Pong, and Pong's associates convene at another partner Drum Kappagoda's sprawling property. Tiller never wants to leave. When Pong announces he must depart for a week, Tiller feels confused. Pong assures him he will be more helpful at the Kappagoda's than back in Dunbar.

After Pong's departure, Tiller's time at the Kappagoda's grows increasingly strange. He enters two distorted relationships with Drum, and his daughter Constance. Then, Drum randomly reassigns him to kitchen duty. Tiller is forced to produce life size vats of curry paste for the abusive cook, Chilies. Though he struggles to maintain physical wellbeing and mental stability, Tiller learns from this experience. He flees the property not long later, after watching Drum drown himself in a tub of mercury.

On his way home, Tiller meets Val and her eight-year-old son, Victor Jr., or Veej, in the Hong Kong International Airport. Val and Tiller start talking, and move in together shortly thereafter. Because Val and her son are in witness protection, the family rarely leaves the house. Tiller will not even reveal the name of the town where they live, calling it Stagno as a filler name.

Though Tiller loves Val and Veej, he also feels restless and alone. Throughout the narrative present he both attempts to dispel and revisit memories of his time abroad, and his childhood past. The more unsettled he feels in his life in Stagno, the more his mind drifts to these experiences.

Then one day, Tiller catches Val, who has lived with depression, attempting suicide. He begs her not to hurt herself, if not for herself or him, then for her son. Val suddenly realizes that Tiller's mother did not merely abandon his family. Afterwards, the family seeks a new way of being. Tiller decides to let the world and his relationships change him, instead of hiding and detaching himself.