The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Heller, Peter. The Guide. Penguin Random House, LLC, 2021.

Peter Heller's novel The Guide is set in Crested Butte, Colorado, and is written from the first person point of view and in the past tense. The novel follows a linear structure, syncopated by main character Jack's frequent flashbacks and dream sequences. The following summary adheres to a linear model.

Twenty-five-year old Jack left his father's Colorado ranch to pursue a job at Kingfisher Lodge, located in Crested Butte. When he arrived at the property, Jack listened to the lodge manager, Kurt, outline the rules of the facility. While settling into his cabin, Jack began to wonder if he had made the right decision by leaving home.

To calm his unrest, Jack went fishing. After both his mother's death when he was 11, and his best friend Wynn's death when he was 22, Jack learned to rely upon fishing for a sense of peace and balance. When Jack noticed a camera attached to the nearby bridge, his reverie quickly dissipated. He did not like that the lodge owner, Nicholas Den, was perpetually watching him.

Jack met his first client, a famous singer named Alison K. Jack and Alison got along immediately. Jack not only appreciated Alison's candor, but her love for nature.

Over the course of the following days, Jack began to notice an increasing number of questionable activities occurring on and around the lodge property. The neighbor, Kreutzer, shot at him and Alison. He found a discarded wader on the riverbank. Kurt, another fishing guide, and a policeman appeared on Kreutzer's property despite everyone's insistence upon not associating with the unstable old neighbor. Jack also noticed Den landing his helicopter on Kreutzer's property. One night while walking, he heard what sounded like a woman screaming in pain. The server, Shay, spent mornings sneaking large loads of food over to Kreutzer's property. This bizarre and inexplicable sequence of events troubled Jack. He was unsure who to believe and what was true.

Worried that Den and his employees might be up to something nefarious, Jack began confiding all that he knew in Alison. Alison listened to Jack, and described several odd things she had also noticed. One afternoon, they drove into Crested Butte to get a bit more privacy. While there, they further discussed what was happening at the lodge. They also learned more about each other, and shifted their friendship into romance.

Shortly thereafter, Kurt told the lodge employees and guests that they would all have to be put on lockdown. Several new cases of the coronavirus had appeared in Crested Butte, and they did not want to risk contraction.

Jack and Alison worried that they might be stuck at the lodge for good, with no way to escape or solve the apparent mystery going on around them.

With the help of voice recordings the former guide left behind, and the Takagi couple's insider details into Den's neighboring operation, Jack and Alison learned what was really going on next door. Den was a biomedical pioneer, known for his discovery of synthetic RNA. He had created a business through which he captured individuals who had survived deadly viruses. He then harvested their plasma and sold it to the rich and famous. The transfusions were meant to give his clients immunity from chronic illness.

Then, when Jack and Alison realized that Den's captives were dying because of these procedures, they decided they must do something to help. They broke into the neighboring property, killed Den, and rescued his victims.

In the months following, Jack and Alison attempted to return to normal life. They continued their relationship, feeling gratitude and contentment.