The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Rapp, Adam. The Sound Inside. Theatre Communications Group, Inc. First Edition, November 2019.

The story is narrated by Bella, the play’s central character and protagonist. Her present-tense narration moves back and forth between directly addressing the audience as she tells her story and interacting with the play’s other character, Bella’s student Christopher. The play begins with Bella introducing herself to the audience and telling them about a few different aspects of her life and circumstances. She portrays herself as more interested in books than in human relationships, as suffering from cancer, and as determined to avoid the painful death from a similar sort of cancer as her mother experienced.

Bella’s narration flows smoothly into the main action of the play, which involves the development of Bella’s relationship with Christopher, who is studying creative writing with her. At first their relationship is somewhat adversarial, given Christopher’s tendency to ignore Bella’s boundaries around student interactions. The text suggests, however, that in spite of Christopher’s apparent arrogance and emotional volatility, Bella develops an interest in furthering their relationship. Initially, they bond over their shared love for certain works of literature and characters in that literature, including the rebellious Raskolnikov, the protagonist of the famous novel Crime and Punishment. Their bond deepens when Christopher reveals that he has read Bella’s published writings, and goes even further when Christopher reveals that he is writing a novella. As Christopher describes the various elements of his book, Bella notices clear similarities between who he is and what he is writing about. When she points them out, he responds by pointing out the similarities between Bella’s writing and her life and identity. This discovery and exploration of parallels between their experiences as both readers and writers leads them into friendship, with Bella clearly becoming interested in the relationship becoming even closer. Ultimately, however, Christopher tactfully rejects Bella’s sexual overtures, and he disappears from her life and her classes for several days.

Eventually, Christopher returns to class, and to his relationship with Bella. He does not, however, return to the narrative – Bella narrates their conversations, describing what happens and what they say without his active participation. As Bella describes him, Christopher assures her that she did nothing wrong, but she seems not entirely convinced. She goes out to a bar and has a random – and unsatisfying – sexual encounter with a man named Clint. A while later, she collapses in her living room, and is taken to hospital. While there, she receives a get-well card from Christopher.

Bella then describes how her visit to the hospital leads to the discovery that her cancer has progressed significantly, and to her doctor prescribing an immediate start to chemotherapy. At first Bella goes along with the idea, but when visiting the treatment center, she sees how unhappy and uncomfortable the other patients are, and leaves without undergoing treatment. She realizes she not only does not want chemotherapy, but that she does not want to die the same sort of lingering, painful death that her mother experienced. She therefore researches ways of committing suicide, and while online, orders the chemicals she will use to end her life through injection.

When Bella invites Christopher over for dinner, she is surprised to see that he has brought his completed manuscript. She interrupts his request that she evaluate it by telling hm she wants, and needs, his help in dying. At first he is reluctant, but eventually agrees – on condition that she read and evaluate his manuscript first. She agrees, and narrates for the audience the passage of time as she both reads and offers her critiques, which are positive. Christopher reluctantly accepts the critiques, and prepares to give Bella the first of her three injections. Bella slips into unconsciousness.

Waking up to find Christopher gone, and his manuscript on the table. Her narration to the audience reveals that a short time later, Christopher’s body was found in the park that Bella was seen visiting at the beginning of the play. She reveals that there has been no cause of death defined, and that she has been left wondering about how and why Christopher died. She also reveals that she chose to start chemotherapy, that it worked, and that she is in remission from her cancer.

As the play concludes, Bella again considers the nature and meaning of Christopher’s death, this time in the light of her wonderings about her own survival.