The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Jen, Gish. The Resisters. Alfred A. Knopf. 2020.

The novel begins with Grant Cannon-Chastanet looking back on his daughter’s childhood in AutoAmerica. Born into a society starkly divided between an elite “Netted” class and a hyper-consuming “Surplus” underclass, Gwen is a Surplus kids whose greatest gift is throwing. Years of competitive automation and corporate-government control led to increased restrictions on AutoAmericans, and sports like baseball had been disbanded for decades. Fearing the government’s watchful eye through the Internet-like “spy network” (6) known as Aunt Nettie, Grant and his wife Eleanor nonetheless encouraged Gwen to pitch in their backyard, recruiting a neighborhood girl named Ondi to play catcher.

Ondi and Gwen became best friends and spent their time engaged in anti-consumer activities like knitting and gardening. After Ondi got into trouble with local police, her family suffered consequences, one of which led to her grandfather’s death. Though the family tried to assist Ondi, she rebuffed them and appeared to blame them for her decision to transgress. The friendship between the two girls ended.

Shortly after, Gwen entered homeschooling under the instruction of her dad, a former teacher whose job was eliminated years ago due to automation. The family also organized an Underground Baseball League, believing Gwen would benefit from being part of a team. As Surplus, most of their town sat on swamplands which many believed contained toxic chemicals. The league, therefore, gathered illegally in abandoned locations. To bypass Aunt Nettie’s ability to see their locations, Grant discovered a way to hack each player’s RegiChip, a tracking device implanted in all Surplus at birth.

Despite the illegality and risks involved, the league thrived, expanding to include twelve teams. Gwen played for the Lookouts, named after an old minor league team. However, the league suffered a major security breach when Ondi Nickelhoff secretly joined a team and played with an exposed chip. Ondi later came to the family’s house and told them she had knowingly endangered the family because of what had happened to her family years ago. She confirmed that Aunt Nettie knew about the league and that the Cannon-Chastanets had been black-coded.

The scandal caused Grant and Eleanor to confess to the breach in front of the entire league, but its members decided to continue playing. Gwen and her family forgave Ondi, and the two became teammates again, with Gwen as pitcher and Ondi playing catcher.

Meanwhile, AutoAmerica had reinstated baseball as a national pastime, a move that Grant and Eleanor perceived as political, motivated by the upcoming Olympics and the country's rivalry with ChinRussia. Tipped off to by Aunt Nettie, government agents began hounding Gwen at home, hoping to recruit her for the university team, Net U. Gwen, following in her mother’s footsteps of resistance, declined to accept the offers. After an unusually kind agent named Mimi said she could also get Ondi into the school, Gwen accepted, and both girls joined the Net U baseball team.

At school, Gwen and Ondi stood out for being among the only Surplus on campus. Their mixed-race appearances made them even more of a novelty to their white teammates. Using a messenger pigeon trained by Grant, Gwen wrote messages to her parents, which Grant recalled in his narration. Gwen’s encounters with her privileged Netted classmates led to a deepened understanding of the country’s class divides and its inherent injustice.

Gwen quickly became a rising star on the Net U team, while Ondi struggled to perform at school and displayed combative behaviors. Gwen frequently wrote to her parents about her coach, Woody Link, whose influence on Gwen became concerning to them. Meanwhile at home, Grant and Eleanor won their SurplusFields lawsuit, proving that the fields contained harmful toxins, and began a subsequent case showing that NettieFood, the government-subsidized food for the Surplus, impaired their cognitive levels. Increased drone traffic above the Cannon-Chastanet household triggered their concerns of being monitored.

With the Olympic tryouts approaching, the collegiate teams faced greater pressure to enhance their players through genetic augmentation. Ondi underwent several procedures to improve her batting and eyesight, as well as the skin-lightening PermaDerm. Ondi began dating Winny Wannabe, a former Surplus classmate of Gwen’s, and they grew increasingly antagonistic toward Gwen, trying to use Gwen’s talent and popularity to advance their own status. Gwen continued to resist the pressures of her Netted life in part because she did not care to CrossOver, a costly process which allowed someone to become a permanent member of the Netted class.

Gwen’s resistance drew criticism from the university. Meanwhile Gwen began to date Coach Link, or Woody as she had started calling him. Under increasing pressure as coach, Woody begged her to undergo at least a minor operation to appease the school’s officials. She refused, accusing him of being morally corrupt. Gwen then left Net U and returned to SurplusVille.

Gwen happily rejoined her teammates but felt heartbroken over Woody. When he appeared at their house one afternoon to talk to Gwen, she refused to see him, still feeling betrayed.

Back home, the Underground League had changed their name to the Aunt Nellie’s All-Star Resistance League, and players sported tattoos of Eleanor, now a folk hero for her legal advocacy. Eleanor’s status as a threat to Aunt Nettie had worsened. At home one day, a group of Special Enforcers, including Mimi, arrived to question Eleanor. When she refused to cooperate, a second group showed up and temporarily paralyzed the family, taking Eleanor.

Grant and Gwen learned through Ondi that Eleanor had been taken to a lab where she was implanted with a device that allowed computers to interfere with her thoughts. Attempting to score points that would allow her to Cross Over, Ondi convinced the family to cooperate with Aunt Nettie. Facing pressure once more to play for AutoAmerica in the Olympics, Gwen agreed to join the team, headed by Coach Woody, in exchange for her mother’s release. Grant noted Eleanor's strange behavior upon her return.

The AutoAmericans quickly advanced in the Olympics, facing the ChinRussians in a final series. Eleanor and Grant attended the last game, accompanied by Ondi, Winny Wannabe, and Ondi’s parents. Gwen pitched perfectly and in the last inning, Eleanor went missing, prompting the game to stop. Woody later discovered she had been shot by Winny, and he carried her to the team’s locker room where she soon died, surrounded by Gwen and Ondi.

The family mourned their loss, and Eleanor’s death catalyzed nation-wide protests against Aunt Nettie. Woody and Ondi reunited, and the novel ends with Grant speaking to Eleanor, telling her she would be proud.