The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Ballard, J. G. The Drought. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2012.

J. G. Ballard's novel The Drought is written from the third person point of view and in the past tense. Throughout the novel, the narrator lives closest to the main character Dr. Charles Ransom's consciousness. Therefore, the entirety of the narrative is filtered through Ransom's perspective. Although the narrative structure takes some inventive liberties with form and structure, the following summary adheres to a streamlined mode of explanation.

In light of a prolonged and severe drought, the residents of Mount Royal and the neighboring Hamilton began evacuating. Although the residents were all leaving for the beach where they thought they would find more water, Dr. Charles Ransom proved reluctant to leave. After losing his job at the hospital, becoming estranged from his wife Judith, and moving out of the house they once shared, Ransom moved into a houseboat he bought not long prior. He originally purchased the boat in hopes that it would revitalize his crumbling life. However, the more time he spent on board the craft, the more the space resembled a mausoleum of his past.

Ransom agreed to a meeting with a local former architect named Richard Lomax. Like Ransom, Lomax was resistant to leaving Hamilton. However, unlike Ransom, Lomax had destructive plans for the future. He invited Ransom to join him in burning down the city, believing that such destructive events would ultimately beget positive transformation and change.

After meeting with Lomax, Ransom realized that life in Hamilton was becoming unsustainable. Fires burned everywhere. The river and lake were drying up. The people were leaving. Those who remained were embroiled in endless feuds and battles.

Ransom convinced his friends Catherine Austen, Philip Jordan, and Mrs. Quilter to join him on his trip from Hamilton to the beach. The companions agreed to the arrangement, realizing that they would not survive in Hamilton much longer. Despite these revelations, along the way, Ransom became increasingly despairing. He felt as if the arid landscape was a reflection of his dissipating identity and reality.

Not long after the traveling companions arrived at the beach, chaos broke out. The people fought over water. Soldiers used violence to quell these uprisings.

Ten years later, Ransom was still living near the ocean. His estranged wife Judith had since returned to him. Despite the nominal comfort of this arrangement, Ransom felt imprisoned in a purgatory. Realizing that the only way to change his circumstances was to take action, he called upon his old traveling companions. Together, he, Catherine, Philip, and Mrs. Quilter headed away from the coast and back towards Hamilton.

As they ventured back to the city from which they had come, Ransom experienced a series of revelations. He particularly began to understand that they were not returning to the past but traveling in pursuit of the future. Indeed, after returning to their old town, Ransom found the setting almost entirely changed.

After reestablishing himself in the area, Ransom went out for a walk one day. The darkening sky unsettled him. He was so unfamiliar with the appearance of rain clouds, he failed to notice that it had begun to rain.