The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Moore, Wayétu. The Dragons, the Giant, the Women. Graywolf Press, 2020.

The book is divided into multiple sections and chapters, the latter of which are numbered from 1-29. This guide creates sections which do not always align with the author's sections, but which rather group together Chapters 1 - 6, 7 - 12, 13 - 18, 19 - 24, and 25 - 29.

Chapters 1 - 6 introduce the Moore family in Liberia where they live. Tutu Moore is the young author narrating the course of several months of her life after she turns five. She calls her father Papa and her mother Mam, though Mam is not in Liberia but rather studying in America. Tutu and her sisters, father, and grandmother -- called 'Ma' -- are forced to flee one day when civil war erupts between Charles Taylors' rebels trying to out Samuel Doe's government in Liberia. They flee on foot through a forest, leaving behind their house and possessions and reach a family friend's house. The men regroup and decide to head to a camp nearby where Liberians are seeking refuge. They are shot at but avoid getting hit, and eventually reach the camp. There, thousands of Liberians are grouped together in fear. A woman alerts the crowd to her daughter being snatched up by either the soldiers meant to be guarding the crowds or rebels disguised as soldiers, so Papa decides the camp is not safe enough.

In Chapters 7 - 12, the family heads towards Lai, which is Mam's ancestral village and hidden deep in the forest where rebels are unlikely to find it. Along the way, they encounter Amos, yet another friend, who travels with them to Junde from where the family must travel by boat to Lai, taking leave of Amos. At the final checkpoint in Junde, Papa is stopped and nearly killed, but the guards release for some reason unknown to Tutu. The family reaches Lai without any further problems and spend the next few months there, with the men in the village travelling outside to get healthy food and medicine. One such trip outside the village, Ma's husband -- Tutu's grandfather -- is killed. Soon after, a rebel woman named Satta arrives in the village, alerting Papa and the children that Mam has come to take them out of Liberia. The book then switches in perspective and now the adult Moore narrates her life in America after a breakup. She begins dreaming of Satta.

In Chapters 13 - 18, Moore speaks to a therapist about her nightmares regarding Liberia. She is encouraged to confront that part of her life. She recounts her difficulties in adjusting to American society and to the racism prevalent therein. She says she experienced shame at her mother's food and accent, feeling like she was not American enough. Eventually, Moore decides to return to Liberia where her parents have returned. She arrives there and is reunited with her grandmother. She tries to locate Satta, trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of this woman, but gives up after many dead ends.

In Chapters 19 - 24, the book again switches perspectives, this time to that of Mam. These chapters detail Mam's heart-breaking departure of Liberia to study in America and her anxiety when the civil war began and she found herself pregnant after her recent trip to Liberia, yet stranded now in New York with no news of Gus and the girls. When Amos calls her with news that her family is safe in Lai, she decides to return to Liberia to rescue her family.

Chapters 25 - 29 describe Mam seeking help from a former teacher, her sister's friend, and others to reach Sierra Leone, where she will go to a town bordering with Liberia and try to investigate how to get her family out of that country. She meets a man on the same bus as her named Jallah, who speaks her native language of Vai and is of the same people as her family. He tells her he knows of a woman, Satta, who is a rebel for Taylor's army but also covertly rescuing people's families for a fee. He brings Satta to meet with Mam, who takes a liking to the girl and pays her the fee. Satta promises to bring her family back by the following evening. Satta finds Papa and the girls in Lai and they say farewell to Ma, whom they must leave behind. They follow Satta to the house where Mam is waiting and are reunited.