Annie Dillard, the author and narrator, is the only person in this book. Throughout Pilgrim at Tinker Creek she is unnamed but Dillard has acknowledged the voice as her own. Dillard chooses to spend a year observing the wilderness at Tinker Creek. The book begins and ends in February outlining the changes of the four seasons. Dillard grapples with her image of God and life as she observes all that is around her—often not being able to separate the two.

Though Dillard weaves science, philosophy, theology, naturalism and mythology together throughout the book—the different schools of thought echo the same existential questions—the same questions Dillard asks herself as she wanders through the creek valley.