The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Livings, Jack. The Blizzard Party. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.

In Jack Livings' novel The Blizzard Party is a first person narrative which does not follow conventional linguistic or structural rules. As first person narrator Hazel Saltwater attempts to reconstruct the confusing events of her past, the narrative veers frequently between physical settings and eras in time. The following summary employs a largely linear form.

Fifteen years after her husband, Vik, disappears in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hazel Saltwater receives evidence of his death. Before she was given the fracture of Vik's bone, Hazel was convinced Vik was not really dead. The artifact of his body crumbles her illusion and distorts her sense of reality. Instead of immediately confronting her grief, Hazel decides that all her troubles began with the night of the Vornados' blizzard party in 1978. Though her father, Erwin, has already written a novel about that night, she wants to rewrite it. In her father's version, she was more of a hole, or an imitation, rather than her true self.

As soon as she begins rewriting Erwin's account, however, Hazel disappears from the center of the story.

On the night of the blizzard, Hazel was six years old. While playing in her room, she fell and hit her head. Because of the storm, her mother, Sarah, could not contact the doctor, and took her upstairs to see their friend Dr. Jane Vornado. There they discovered a wonderful party. Sarah settled Hazel in the Vornados' guest bedroom, and began drinking and mingling. Erwin stayed behind. He was generally disinterested in stories, and wanted to write.

While working, he started frying some fish, which he eventually forgot about. He soon discovered they were burnt and inedible. He took the bag of ruined fillets downstairs, where he stood outside the building and watched the snow. A taxi sped up, skidding in the snow, and nearly killed him.

The taxi was driven by Erwin's neighbor and acquaintance Albert Caldwell. Albert had confronted Erwin in the recent past with a request. He wanted Erwin to administer a weekly memory test for him. Desperate to never forget the day his grandson died, Albert told Erwin on the day he failed the memory test, he would kill himself.

A few hours before the party, Albert began his suicide plan. He ended up in the hospital, suddenly remembering that his plan had gone awry. He fled the hospital, stole a cab, and sped away into the storm. After crashing the car on a neighboring street from the apartment where Erwin was standing, Albert exited the car and headed towards the river.

Meanwhile, Albert's son, John arrived at the apartment to visit his father. There he encountered Erwin. When the men discovered Albert was in the hospital, they decided to go find him. They sat in the hospital waiting room and waited for someone to locate Albert. The men shared their stories of loss and grief.

The hospital attendant then informed them Albert was gone. The men headed back out into the storm. They eventually separated, and Erwin returned home an hour before John.

At around the same time, 13-year-old Vik found a confused Albert by the river, and guided him home. Unable to find Albert's apartment, and distracted by the Vornados' party, Vik deposited the old man on the bed with Hazel. Shortly thereafter, another guest saw Albert lying naked near Hazel, grabbed him, and threw him out the window. Albert's body landed on his son, who was just returning home, and killed him.

After finishing her rewrite of the story, Hazel decides to visit her father. She asks him about the secret he has been guarding his entire life. Erwin tells her his account in detail, and they share an intimate conversation about life and reality.

Hazel finally feels liberated from the trappings of her father, Albert, and Vik's stories and memories. She is ready to leave this life behind.