The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Tawada, Yoko. Scattered All Over the Earth. New York: New Directions, 2022.

Scattered All Over the Earth is narrated from the perspectives of five different characters.

In Chapter 1, a Danish linguistics student named Knut sees a woman on a television show who claims to be from a country that no longer exists. Her name is Hiruko and she speaks a homemade language she created drawing from different languages in the Scandinavian countries where she has been living. Knut is fascinated by Hiruko's story and calls the television station to ask if he can meet her. Hiruko agrees to meet Knut and the two go out to dinner together. She tells him that she is trying to find another person from her home country. She has heard of one person living in the German city of Trier. Knut agrees to travel there with her.

In Chapter 2, Hiruko is working in Odense at a school where she teaches European languages and culture to immigrant children. She takes part in the television program and then meets Knut for dinner and discusses her plans to travel to Trier. Knut tells her about his mother, who has an unnatural fixation on Eskimo people.

In Chapter 3, an Indian person named Akash who is transitioning from male to female observes Knut and Hiruko at the Luxembourg Airport. Striking up a conversation, he learns they are going to Trier. Knowing the city well (and feeling a romantic attraction toward Knut), Akash offers to show them around. Knut and Hiruko are looking for a man named Tenzo, who will be putting on a presentation about dashi, an ingredient in Japanese food, at the Karl Marx House Museum. Hiruko believes that Tenzo is from her home country. The group has lunch together and then walks through the ruins of a Roman bathhouse, where they come upon a blonde woman.

In Chapter 4, a German woman named Nora hangs signs announcing the cancellation of the dashi presentation because Tenzo, the man who was to do the presentation and also Nora's lover, had suddenly gone to Oslo and had not returned. Nora met Tenzo at the Roman bath ruins a month earlier. He had sprained his ankle and she helped him to her apartment. She noticed he was ethnically ambiguous and felt embarrassed for noticing. Tenzo told Nora he had been working at a sushi restaurant in northern Germany and she assumed he was Japanese, which Tenzo confirmed. In the ensuing weeks, Tenzo stayed with Nora and the two became lovers. He had trouble finding work, so Nora organized the dashi presentation for him, but he left Trier five days before it was to be held, claiming he was going to Oslo to take part in a cooking competition. He has not returned, so she is canceling the presentation. After hanging the signs, Nora walks into the Roman baths, feeling despondent about Tenzo, and comes upon Knut, Hiruko, and Akash. They tell her they are planning to attend the dashi presentation and she tells them it has been canceled. Everyone except Akash, who cannot afford to come along, decides to travel to Oslo to look for Tenzo.

In Chapter 5, Tenzo explains that he is actually an Eskimo man named Nanook. Tenzo/Nanook was born and raised in Greenland and then moved to Copenhagen to attend university. He received a scholarship from a woman named Inga Nielsen, who ran a fund for Eskimo students. Tenzo/Nanook began regularly eating at a sushi restaurant, and eventually got a job there. Customers assumed he was Japanese because of his appearance. Tenzo/Nanook never corrected them, and actually learned Japanese so he could pretend this was true. He stopped attending school and began traveling around Europe. In the German town of Husum, he got a job at a sushi restaurant and learned about its original owner, a Japanese man named Susanoo, who attended the University of Kiel, but ran off to Arles in the South of France. A customer at the restaurant told Tenzo/Nanook about Trier and Tenzo/Nanook decided to go there, where he met Nora. He fled Trier because he felt like his relationship with Nora was becoming too serious.

In Chapter 6, Hiruko arrives in Oslo, where she meets Nora and Akash, who was sent by Knut in his place, supposedly because Knut's mother is ill. Hiruko meets Tenzo/Nanook at the restaurant where the cooking competition is being held, and immediately knows he is not Japanese. Tenzo/Nanook admits the ruse, and Hiruko convinces him to tell Nora the truth. The cooking competition is called off because a dead whale washes up on the beach and both Tenzo/Nanook and the restaurateur who was holding the competition are suspected of harming it, but they are ultimately cleared of these charges.

In Chapter 7, Knut explains that he decided not to go to Oslo after his mother invited herself along on the trip. She was upset because the Eskimo student she was sponsoring had stopped contacting her. Akash calls Knut and tells him about Tenzo/Nanook and says that Hiruko has returned to Odense.

In Chapter 8, Susanoo is living in Arles, working at a sushi restaurant. He recalls his childhood, during which his mother left him and his father built robots, one of which was used in the Homeland PR Center to tout the benefits of nuclear power before the reopening of a nuclear power plant. Susanoo left Japan to attend university in Kiel. He then followed a woman to Arles who turned out to be otherwise attached to another man. He has lived in Arles ever since and has lost the ability to speak.

In Chapter 9, Hiruko arrives at the restaurant in Arles and begins speaking to Susanoo about their mutual home country, but discovers that Susanoo cannot reply. She is saddened, but realizes that perhaps she has been putting too much stock in a person's native country. She has enjoyed speaking Japanese with Tenzo/Nanook, even though he is not from Japan. Knut, Nora, Akash, and Tenzo/Nanook arrive at the restaurant, followed by a woman Hiruko does not recognize.

In Chapter 10, Knut realizes his mother has arrived at the restaurant because he told her he was going to Arles. Knut's mother recognizes Tenzo/Nanook and chastises him for not keeping her better informed of his whereabouts. Knut tells his mother that Tenzo/Nanook owes her no such thing. He also tells her that Hiruko is his lover. The group decides to take Susanoo to Stockholm, where a friend of Knut's conducts research involving people who have lost their ability to speak.