The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Holsinger, Bruce. The Displacements. Riverhead Books, 2022.

The Displacements opens in a wealthy gated community outside of Miami, Florida, where a woman named Daphne Larsen-Hall struggles to balance her work as a sculptor with her responsibilities as a mother to three children (Gavin, Mia, and Oliver) while her husband, Brantley, works a high-octane job as a doctor. While preparing a birthday party for Oliver, the youngest, Daphne struggles to get any assistance from Brantley and is furious when Gavin intentionally allows the ice cream cake that Daphne has had prepared to melt in the sun. Later that evening, Brantley and Daphne attend an art installation where Daphne's sculptures are being shown, and Daphne grows progressively irritated with Brantley as he begins hounding her about getting payments for her work in spite of the fact that he earns a six-figure salary. Meanwhile, in a town called Cold Spring, Kansas, a FEMA worker named Rain Holton performs work in the field before being pulled off the job by her supervisor and informed that a massive storm called Hurricane Luna is scheduled to make direct landfall with Miami. As news of the hurricane reaches Miami, Daphne manages to get herself and the children out of the city, but Brantley is stranded at the hospital; Hurricane Luna sweeps into Miami, becomes the world's first Category 6 hurricane, and razes the city.

While on the road north, Daphne realizes that Gavin failed to bring her purse with them and that the family has no access to any of their money. They wind up at a Red Cross location which puts them on a bus en route to a FEMA shelter in Oklahoma, where they are treated skeptically by their fellow passengers thanks to their outwardly wealthy appearances. Meanwhile, in Houston, an insurance agent named Tate, who deals drugs on the side, receives word from one of his customers and pushers, Jessamyn, that their suppliers in St. Louis are sending a massive shipment of a new narcotic called "wildfire." As it becomes clear that Hurricane Luna is scheduled to make a second landfall in Houston, Tate decides to take Jessamyn and the wildfire and run to one of the FEMA shelters. Upon arriving at Tooley Farm, the name of the Oklahoma FEMA shelter, the Larsen-Halls begin to settle in, with Mia befriending a girl named Luz and Daphne receiving word that Brantley failed to make it out before Luna hit Miami.

Tate and Jessamyn arrive at Tooley Farm and immediately begin to integrate themselves into the population there, roping Gavin into their arrangement by having him sell wildfire through his position at the Tooley Farm library. Tate thus becomes acquainted with Daphne and, after using her information to run a credit check, informs her that all of her money is gone and she has inherited an enormous amount of debt from Brantley, a revelation that becomes even more humiliating for Daphne when she realizes that the local schools have no interest in admitting Mia and Oliver and that her last possessions of value, her rings, have been stolen by one of her neighbors. At a loss, Daphne begins harvesting clay from a creek near Tooley Farm and receives help from Rain, who is overseeing the FEMA site, to begin teaching pottery classes to the other displaced people. One day, Brantley's mother, Flo, appears at Tooley Farm; through discussing financial details with Flo and Gavin, Daphne is able to put together that Brantley defaulted on Flo's retirement home payments and forced Gavin to drop out of Stanford University so that Brantley could liquidate his 529 fund. Meanwhile, Mia and Luz begin playing a children's game called Range, during which they develop a rivalry with a racist white boy named Kyler Biggs. After Kyler assaults Luz in the bathroom, Mia decides to exact her revenge by smearing human feces all over Kyler's tent; unfortunately, however, this leads Kyler's father to get in touch with ICE, who launch a raid on the camp and deport Luz and her entire family.

Daphne finally receives a payout from her manager, Pilar, for the insured value of her lost work, but the money is immediately transferred to a bank in Guatemala; after doing some digging, Daphne realizes that Brantley is not dead, but has instead stolen the family's money and relocated to South America. Meanwhile, Gavin attempts to part ways with Tate because he is angry that Jessamyn has developed a wildfire addiction, which prompts Tate to threaten Gavin by pointing a gun to his head. As punishment for her culpability in getting Luz and her family deported, Mia's friends kick her out of their Range group and inform her that her brother is known to be a drug dealer, which prompts Mia to rat Gavin out to Daphne at the same time as Tate decides to leave Tooley Farm, abandoning Jessamyn with a few tabs of wildfire and a small amount of money. As Tate flees, a massive storm arrives at Tooley Farm, but Crackertown refuses to evacuate; Kyler's father, Chester, proclaims that it is sovereign territory and that the government cannot make them leave. When the storm hits, Gavin finds Jessamyn dead from an overdose, Rain struggles to convince the residents of Crackertown to flee, and Daphne runs into the storm to find Gavin, whom she is able to rescue in the nick of time.

The residents of Tooley Farm are relocated to Oklahoma City, where Gavin is briefly questioned by a police officer before being given a small gift by the children he used to read into the library. Brantley finally gets in touch with Daphne and is shocked when Daphne refuses to meet him in Guatemala and informs him that she no longer considers him to be a member of the family. Daphne manages to catch Rain at the airport and give her a small sculpture as a gift, a gesture that prompts Rain to break down crying at having finally been recognized for her work. The Larsen-Halls relocate to Florida, where Daphne begins an art installation, Gavin becomes a teacher, and the family works to rebuild.