The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Shteyngart, Gary. Our Country Friends. Penguin Random House LLC., 2021.

Gary Shteyngart's novel Our Country Friends is written from a third person free indirect point of view and in the past tense. The novel follows a largely linear plot structure, beginning at the start of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and ending four months later.

When the coronavirus first began to break out across the country, Alexander Senderovsky, his wife Masha, and their adopted daughter Nat, left the city. They moved into their House on the Hill. The house was surrounded by a generous amount of land. Senderovsky had also planned and developed the land to look like a little European village. Eager to see his friends and to enjoy the mandatory shutdown, Senderovsky invited his closest companions to the property.

Not long later, Ed Kim, Karen Cho, Vinod Mehta, Dee Cameron and the Actor arrived at Senderovsky's colony. Senderovsky, Karen, and Vinod had been friends since high school. They met Ed during college. Senderovsky knew the Actor through work. He invited him to join his friends because he wanted the Actor to finish adapting his story for the screen. Dee was one of Senderovsky's former students.

Almost as soon as all of the guests arrived, Masha began feeling anxious. She was worried about the guests' cavalier attitudes and their seeming disregard for her rules. She also felt bothered by their annoyance with her eight-year-old.

At the dinner table, Karen invited the Actor and Dee to try out her new dating app, Tröö Emotions. Only moments after the program formatted their photo, the Actor fell in love with Dee, per the app's promise. Ed was disappointed, as he was already developing feelings for Dee too.

The next day, Ed and Dee took a walk together. This alone time only amplified Ed's attraction to the young woman.

Meanwhile, the Actor was having a hard time adjusting to the colony's primitive showers. When Masha found him screaming on the lawn, she ran outside. He was naked and had soap in his eyes. She helped him rinse off. The encounter soon became sexual. After this initial episode, the two began an affair.

When Vinod first arrived on the property, he asked Senderovsky about his old manuscript. He had given Senderovsky the pages years prior. Though Vinod knew Senderovsky thought the work was unpublishable, he wanted to see it now. He thought rereading it might help him understand something about his past self. Senderovsky panicked. He had the book, but did not want to give it to Vinod. He hid it in a groundhog hole.

While Nat and Karen were playing outside together, they found Vinod's manuscript. Karen secretly started reading the book. She soon realized that she was falling in love with Vinod. Not long later, she visited his bungalow and the two had sex. She told him about the book afterwards.

Vinod was furious. He confronted Senderovsky about his betrayal. Though he knew speaking his mind would upset the balance of power between himself, Senderovsky, and Karen, he called Senderovsky a fraud and hit him.

Senderovsky later told Vinod that the novel had been so good, he was jealous. He did not want Vinod for competition.

Meanwhile, the Actor and Dee began sleeping together. The Actor ended his affair with Masha, much to her disappointment. However, as soon as Dee was attacked and disgraced on social media for an essay she had written, the Actor broke up with her and left the property.

After the Actor left, the other guests grew closer. Their happiness, however, could not last. Not long later, Karen discovered Vinod's medical paperwork. He had been battling lung cancer for years, but she did not know his health was so poor. She realized he had come to the colony to die.

In the final weeks of their stay, the friends tried caring for and distracting Vinod from his discomfort. Meanwhile, Dee and Ed started a relationship and Masha and Senderovsky returned to their former intimacy. At the end of the summer, Vinod died. The friends missed him, but toasted to all they had shared and learned together.