The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Wilson, Kevin. Now Is Not the Time to Panic. Ecco, 2022.

Wilson's novel is divided into two parts -- the first consisting of twelve chapters, the second consisting of five, totaling 17 overall. Frankie, a 16-year-old girl in the first part and a woman in her 30s in the second, lives in Coalfield, Tennessee, narrating the novel from a first-person perspective.

The novel begins with Frankie meeting a boy her age named Zeke at the public pool in her town. They become fast friends, Zeke coming over shortly thereafter to watch horror movies at Frankie's house. They both share details of their parents' affairs with each other; Zeke explains how he became violent toward his father when he learned of his infidelity. They learn that they both make different types of art, and they soon start making art of sorts with a copier in Frankie's garage. A tentative romance begins.

As their friendship and romance evolves, Zeke suggests that they make art that they can hang up somewhere -- he coaxes Frankie to write something that springs into her head, and he makes a drawing to accompany it. Thus, the poster they will hang up around town is born. They make a bunch of copies to put up.

Frankie and Zeke begin plastering the posters up all over town. It becomes a town-wide conspiracy where everyone debates who's responsible for the posters and for what reason. It begins to balloon out of their control, as various malevolent interpretations of the posters become widespread and people allege that they have been kidnapped by people calling themselves "fugitives," referencing the writing on the poster. A man named Lyle in Coalfield dies, falling off a water tower trying to hang a poster of his own.

Other people begin hanging the posters too. Certain factions around town turn violent, tearing down the posters and trying to investigate where they come from. They go to Zeke's hometown of Memphis and hang the posters there. They end up meeting Zeke's father, who admonishes them for making the posters and continuing to hang them up, and Zeke attacks him, and they run away. He forcefully tries to have sex with Frankie in the car afterwards.

Frankie arrives home from Memphis to learn a classmate has been killed in a fight about the posters in Coalfield. Frankie confronts Zeke, who has not contacted her since they went to Memphis, and she learns he is moving back to Memphis. He, in desperation when Frankie says she'll tell people they're responsible for the posters, shoves her away, and she falls and breaks her arm. On the way home, she tries to kill herself by driving into a tree, but her kindly artistic neighbor, Mr. Avery, calls the cops and hides the posters. After Frankie recovers, the school year starts, the furor dies down, and she continues hanging the posters.

After this, the novel jumps forward to the present day, as Frankie is interviewed by a journalist named Mazzy Brower about the posters; she has learned that Frankie is responsible because Mr. Avery included this detail in letters he wrote to a famous artist Mazzy is researching named Henry Roosevelt Wilson. In the years following, Frankie has published her novels and become successful. She drums up a professional relationship with a professor named Dr. Blush, who encourages her to publish her books and eventually gets her a deal. Now, Frankie is married to a man named Aaron, and has a child named Junie. Since Mazzy has discovered her, she finally tells Aaron that she was responsible for the posters at this point (and continues to occasionally hang them), which makes Aaron feel scared and angry, but he trusts her to return to Coalfield and figure things out.

Frankie returns to her hometown and meets her mother -- she tells her about the posters, but her mother already figured out she was the one behind them long ago. She feverishly tries to look up Zeke, and eventually decides to call his mother. His mother asks why she would call, and she hangs up, resolved to drive to Memphis to confront him in person. She goes there and meets Zeke, who is currently living with his parents, diagnosed with bipolar. He touches up various comic book drawings for a living. He requests she not mention that he was involved, and she agrees. He draws a couple new copies of the poster for her and sort of teaches her how to draw it so as not to arouse suspicion. She returns home to Aaron and Junie, resolved to tell Aaron all the details about Zeke that she agreed not to tell Mazzy. Junie repeats the lines from the poster to her that night as she puts her to bed.