The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Solomon, Rivers. The Deep. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2019.

Rivers Solomon's speculative novel The Deep is written from both the third person limited and the first person plural points of view. The novel toys with traditional notions of style and form, and embraces flashback and temporal distortion. The following summary adheres to a linear plot presentation and relies upon the present tense.

Ever since Yetu was a little girl, she has felt isolated, misunderstood, and alone. She is a member of the wajinru people, a class of scaled, boneless fish creatures born of pregnant enslaved women thrown overboard slave ships. Although she lives with individuals who are the same as her, she feels no connection to them. Like her fellow wajinru, Yetu has no access to the details of her ancestral past. Rather, she only receives these memories once a year during the wajinru Remembrance ceremonies.

Then one day, the historian Basha notices Yetu's remarkable electroreceptor capabilities, and decides she will make an ideal historian. He appoints her as his successor. After Basha's death, Yetu assumes the role. As historian, she is the only individual allowed to remember. She must mine the sea for new memories, and is responsible for carrying and protecting these memories. Unlike all of her predecessors, however, Yetu is deeply impacted by the painful nature of these memories. Whenever she is remembering, she falls into the experiences and worlds of her ancestors, forced not only to witness but to adopt their suffering.

On the day of the Remembrance ceremony, Yetu is unsure she will be able to complete her duties. She must enter the mud structure, called the womb, and transfer the History to the wajinru. The ceremony depletes her physically, though it does temporarily ease her mental pain. Suddenly, amidst the ceremony, Yetu makes the impulsive decision to flee. She can no longer assume the identity of her people. She longs for freedom and independence. She wants to discover who she truly is.

After Yetu departs, the wajinru are left to receive and navigate the annals of the History by themselves. They are shocked by the stories of their ancestors.

Yetu swims and swims until she reaches the surface of the ocean. There she discovers a group of two-legs individuals, or humans, on shore. She soon befriends two of the two-legs, Suka and Oori. Yetu and Oori develop a particularly close bond. Like Yetu, Oori is no stranger to loneliness. Indeed, she is the last of her people and fears that her homeland will soon be destroyed. Almost as soon as Yetu and Oori confess their feelings for one another, Oori announces that she must take a pilgrimage to her homeland. In the wake of her departure, Yetu's loneliness returns. She realizes that without Oori and her people, she is no one.

Yetu decides to return to the wajinru. Her mother, Amaba, welcomes her back into the collective. Instead of scolding Yetu for leaving, she assures her daughter that she did what she had to do to protect herself. Now she must rejoin the community. Amaba and the other wajinru swear to share the weight and pain of the History together. Before permanently rejoining her people, Yetu ventures off in search of Oori. Once reunited, she teaches Oori to breathe under water and welcomes her into the wajinru community.