The following version of this novel was used in the creation of this study guide: Oseman, Alice. Radio Silence. HarperTeen. 2017. Revised Edition. 2023. Paperback

The novel starts at the beginning of summer term as Francis fights to graduate high school with high grades and go to Cambridge university. Her entire life revolves around her academics, and Francis struggles to find anything else that she enjoys aside from her drawing and a mystery podcast, Universe City. So, when the owner of the podcast reaches out for an art collaboration, Francis decides to take the offer. Around this time, Francis learns that the mysterious narrator of the podcast - known as Radio Silence - is actually Aled: the brother of her former best friend, Carys, who ran away from home two years prior.

Over the summer, Frances and Aled become very close friends and work together more often on Universe City. Throughout this, Frances learns that Aled’s mother is emotionally abusive and obsessed with Aled’s academic success, even though he does not want to go to university. On Aled’s 18th birthday, Daniel invites Frances to camp out with him and Aled where the three record a drunken conversation that is accidentally uploaded as a new episode of the podcast. Within a few hours, a recommendation from a famous YouTuber skyrockets Aled’s subscriber count and more people become involved in the lore of Universe City. This includes the mysterious February Friday - a character Aled has been writing to at the end of every episode who is not a part of the main story and is likely someone Aled knows in real life.

When the school year starts, however, Frances is overwhelmed by the attention as Aled’s obsessive fans link her artist account, Touloser to herself. She tries to keep Aled’s secret, but fails after her anxiety stops her from lying. Eventually, Aled’s fans are able to connect information from both his and Frances’s private Facebooks to prove who he is. This infuriates Aled who accuses Frances of being an obsessive fangirl who just wanted to take away the only thing he cares about. Frances tries to defend herself, but Aled argues she just wanted him as a replacement for Carys, as Frances once admitted that she blames herself for Carys’s decision to run away.

After Aled leaves for university, Frances slips into a deep depression and struggles to focus on preparing for her interview for Cambridge. After over a year of stress and a lot of self-doubt, Frances stumbles through her interview and realizes that she is not interested in English Literature. Unfortunately, this does not lessen her grief when she is officially rejected by Cambridge, as she believes that all of her hard work was for nothing.

Unfortunately, things get worse after Frances and Aled reconnect when they discover that Carol has removed everything unique in his room and put down his dog so he would focus more on his schoolwork. After Aled returns to university to escape Carol, Frances realizes that the endings of Universe City have all been attempts from Aled to reach out to Carys, as they have not spoken in years.

So, desperate to save her Aled, Frances tracks Carys down and convinces her to listen to come back to help. Carys confronts her mother who demands that Aled return home with her and, while he agrees to go at first, Frances convinces him to come live with her and live the life he wants without his mother destroying everything. The novel ends with Frances admitting to her mother that she does not want to go to college while Aled embraces the popularity of Universe City.