The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Chaon, Dan. Sleepwalk. Henry Holt and Company, 2022. First Edition. Hardcover.

The novel is told in four parts, each broken into relatively short, titled chapters. The story is primarily narrated through the first-person, present tense narration of the 50-year-old unnamed protagonist, who calls himself the Barely Blur. In Part One, the story begins with Blur travelling with a captive whom he is transferring to another group of men. It is clear in the first few pages that Blur is a man-for-hire in an illegal network. Blur lives an itinerant life, living and operating out of his camper, the Guiding Star. His one companion is his dog, Flip. Blur gets a call on one of his burner phones from a woman calling herself Cammie. Blur is at first worried by, and skeptical of, the call, but Cammie persists in calling. Part One establishes the fact that Blur lives off-grid, anonymously, and has little human contact. Implicit in these pages is Blur’s dissatisfaction with his life.

Part Two begins with Cammie calling Blur again. Unlike in Part One, Blur stays on the phone with her. She tells him that she believes he is her father, artificially inseminated from sperm he used to donate to a clinic in his twenties. Blur has brief memories of his young adulthood; the reader gets glimpses of Blur’s time in a psychiatric institution, and also learns that Blur killed his mother, but he does not dwell on the memory. Through Part Two, Blur drives seemingly aimlessly around the country in the Guiding Star; the plot’s development manifests primarily in his conversations with Cammie. She tells him that she despises her adoptive parents, and reveals that she, too, lives off-grid like Blur. These conversations also catalyze Blur’s memories of his mother, who was not affectionate towards him but who taught him how to survive in the tough world of the illegal networks he operates in. Cammie eventually tells Blur she believes he fathered 167 children via his sperm donations, and suggests he is involved in some genetic-grooming cult. He begins to wonder if Cammie is delusional. However, Blur finds himself, surprisingly, wanting to believe Cammie truly is his daughter. The reader’s first glimpse at the dystopia of the novel occurs in Part Two. While Blur is driving, he passively comments on seeing a giant, walking drone along the highway; this is commonplace in the novel’s world.

Part Three begins with the Guiding Star breaking down on the highway. An anonymous handyman named Friend Dave in the employ of the network brings Blur and the Star to Blur’s childhood friend and associate, Experanza. He tells her about Cammie and Experanza is quite skeptical of the calls. She thinks this is a ploy that is dangerous not just to Blur, but the whole network. Blur learns the Star is totaled, which upsets him as much as a human death would. In a new car, Blur drives to meet with Tim Ribbons, the leader of the network. En route, he recalls briefly driving through Chicago when he was younger, where he met a student named Patches who paid him to suck on his toes. Blur eventually meets with Ribbons; Ribbons tells him Cammie is, in fact, a hacker, and he sends Blur to Chicago to kill her. Blur recalls how Ribbons met with him when he was institutionalized, asking questions about his mother’s whereabouts. Blur arrives at Cammie’s apartment in Chicago, but finds it recently deserted. Cammie calls him shortly after he leaves her apartment; she mentions that she knows Blur lived with Patches, whose name is Porter St. Germaine. Blur decides to visit Patches at his home in South Carolina to ask about some of the conspiracies Cammie discusses. He meets Patches at a white supremacist march that turns into a riot. They go back to Patches’ compound, where he lives with a gorilla who seems to be his sexual partner. Patches suggests Cammie is part of a collective called The Sisters, and gives Blur vague, ambiguous responses to most of his questions.

Part Four begins with Blur realizing he has been dosed in a drink; he flees Patches’ compound when he starts to feel the effects. Blur hitchhikes to Nebraska and calls Experanza. She confesses that she has been hired to be Blur’s “tender” throughout his life; she has looked over him on behalf of the network. This revelation upsets Blur quite deeply. Experanza and Blur’s half-brother, Tommy, whom he has never met, corner Blur in a convenience store. Blur fatally shoots Tommy and Flip fatally attacks Experanza, much to Blur’s distress, but he then flees. Cammie hacks a nearby drone and guides Blur to a safehouse called the Mammoth Site. Blur learns there is a tracking device in Flip; he reluctantly chooses to leave Flip in the care of the Mammoth Site as he leaves to find Cammie. Cammie tells Blur she suspects his father is a cult leader named Harland Jengling, who has fathered many and had embryos frozen. She explains there is a cult whose agenda is to create a race of docile, strong humans – in the mold of Blur – to function as a labor force in the future, when there will be a superior race of disembodied humans who exist solely as minds. Blur is captured by a young man named Cam who intends to take him to meet Jengling at the Temple of the True Science. Blur escapes Cam, though, and ultimately unites with Cammie. She is accompanied by two sisters. The four live on a remote island in the novel’s conclusion.