The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Mottley, Leila. Nightcrawling. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.

Nightcrawling begins with 17-year-old protagonist Kiara Johnson seeing a rent increase notice on her apartment door. She is living with her older brother, Marcus, because their father is dead and their mother is living in a halfway house after a suicide attempt and a stint in prison. Marcus is determined to become a famous rapper like their Uncle Ty, but he refuses to get a job and spends all of his time in a recording studio. Kiara takes her neighbor, nine-year-old Trevor, to school because his mother, a “crackhead” (3) named Dee, is asleep. Kiara goes to the restaurant owned by her best friend Alé's family. Alé gives Kiara breakfast and the two set off for a ritual they call “funeral day” (11), in which they go to a funeral home and pretend to be mourners, then help themselves to the buffet and clothes from the closet. Alé consoles Kiara about the rent increase and promises they will figure out a way to pay.

Kiara goes to Marcus's friend Cole's house, where Marcus is working in the recording studio. She begs Marcus to get a job but he convinces her to allow him to work on his music for just one more month.

Kiara walks through downtown Oakland asking about employment at stores and cafes, but she is turned away for being too young and lacking experience. She enters a strip club, where she sees Marcus's old friend Lacy working behind the bar. Lacy gives Kiara a few drinks, and when she leaves hours later, she is followed by a man in a polka dot tie. Drunk, Kiara allows the man to convince her to go to the rooftop of a nearby building, where he has sex with her, gives her a couple hundred dollars, and leaves. Having now lost her virginity, Kiara realizes she can do sex work for money. While walking home, she meets another sex worker named Camila, who warns her that she needs to have a pimp protecting her. Kiara asks Marcus's friend Tony to watch her while she is walking the streets as she begins regularly meeting men who pay her for sex.

Dee stops returning home and Kiara begins more actively caring for Trevor. Marcus gets a job at the strip club but quits when a customer is rude to him. Kiara calls her mother at the halfway house and asks for Uncle Ty's phone number, but her mother insists Kiara must visit her before she can have it. When Kiara visits, her mother asks her to write a letter to the parole board encouraging them to release her. Her mother does not have Uncle Ty's number. It is revealed that Kiara's mother went to prison because she negligently left the apartment door open one day, resulting in Kiara's baby sister drowning in the building's swimming pool.

Kiara is having sex with a man for money on the street and they are caught by police. The officer takes Kiara into his cruiser and forces her to have sex with him. Soon after, she is forced to attend a poker game with multiple police officers. One officer puts his gun to Kiara's head as he sexually assaults her. This coercive relationship with the police continues; sometimes the officers pay her for sex and other times they insist that their protection is payment enough.

Marcus takes Kiara to an underpass, where they make graffiti art together. It is a beautiful moment for Kiara, but when she asks Marcus once more to get a job and he refuses, she tells him he can no longer live with her. Kiara goes to a party to meet Camila's pimp, Demond, at Camila's request. While there, she receives a phone call from a police officer telling her that there are undercover cops at the party that will be arresting people. He asks her to meet him outside. The police officer takes Kiara to his house and coerces her into sex, then refuses to pay her.

Kiara and Trevor make a cake for Kiara's 18th birthday but they are interrupted by two police officers who take Kiara to the station to question her. One officer tells her that they are investigating possible “sexual exploitation” (146) involving police officers. It is clear they do not have Kiara's best interests in mind, and she is vague when answering their questions. Later, she is invited to another party full of police officers. When she steps outside, a female officer named Sandra approaches her and tells her that a police officer died by suicide and confessed about everything he and his fellow officers had done to Kiara in his note. She gives Kiara her phone number.

In the days that follow, Kiara is certain she is being followed by police. She sends Trevor to stay with Alé temporarily. When she goes to Cole's to see Marcus, the police arrive on the scene. They search Cole's car and find drugs, then arrest both Cole and Marcus. Kiara calls Sandra and tells her about Marcus, and Sandra gives her the phone number of an attorney, Marsha Fields, as well as Uncle Ty's phone number, which Sandra has found by running a background check. Kiara calls Ty and he comes to Oakland. They visit Marcus in jail and Ty offers to pay his bail, but Marcus insists he pay Cole's instead.

Kiara meets with Marsha Fields, who preps her on testifying before a grand jury, which will decide whether or not to indict the officers that have harmed Kiara. A few days later, Marsha convinces Kiara to go to the police station and meet with the new chief. The chief tries to convince Kiara to take a cash settlement and then threatens to call Child Protective Services about Trevor. Kiara goes home and discovers that Trevor has been badly beaten by some other boys on the basketball court.

A short time later, Kiara goes to visit her mother, who has been released from the halfway house. Her mother takes her to a freeway and encourages her to scream to release her anger and sadness. It is a powerful bonding moment. Later, a representative from Child Protective Services comes to Kiara's apartment and takes Trevor away.

Kiara testifies before the grand jury and the district attorney attempts to discredit her with his line of questioning. Afterward, Alé comes over and she and Kiara hold one another, kiss, and talk about their lives. In the morning, Kiara learns the grand jury has chosen not to indict the police officers, but she feels a sense of calm because she is with Alé. Kiara hears someone splashing in the pool and runs outside to find Trevor. Kiara jumps in the pool with him, and even though she knows he has only returned for a visit, she feels joyful.