The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Varela, Alejandro. The Town of Babylon. Astra House, 2022.

Alejandro Varela's novel The Town of Babylon is written from both the first and third person points of view. Varela alternates between chapters of his protagonist Andrés's first person account, and those of an unidentified third person narrator's account. The first person sections are written in the present tense, while the third person sections are set in the past. These formal subversions enact the author's overarching explorations concerning memory and the past. The following summary relies upon the present tense and adheres to a linear mode of explanation.

Andrés returns to his hometown to help his parents Rosario and Álvaro after Álvaro's recent surgery. While home, Andrés decides to attend his twentieth high school reunion. Although he has avoided such events over the past two decades, he decides that encountering people from his past might clarify some of his internal tensions.

While at the reunion, Andrés talks with his old lover Jeremy. Jeremy was not only the first person with whom Andrés was with, but remains a source of emotional confusion for Andrés. Years prior, Andrés and Jeremy developed a deep romantic and sexual connection. Although Andrés is married to a man named Marco and Jeremy is married to a woman named Tonya, seeing one another again reignites the former lovers' feelings.

Over the course of the following days, Andrés and Jeremy start spending time together once again. They meet in the basement of Jeremy's house while his wife is out with the kids. Although Andrés demands to know why Jeremy failed to meet him at the station the day they were meant to run away to the city together, Jeremy repeatedly deflects. He is still in love with Andrés, but wants to leave the past in the past.

Meanwhile, on the days Andrés drives his father to his doctor's appointments, Andrés spends time visiting his high school best friend Simone at the nearby psychiatric hospital. During these visits, Andrés reflects on the ways in which he let Simone down years ago. Simone has schizophrenia, a condition that began manifesting after her father's death when she started college. Andrés and Simone notice the ways they both have changed, but are grateful for the opportunity to reunite.

During one of his afternoons with Jeremy, Andrés finally learns the truth. Jeremy tells him that Andrés's late brother Henry convinced him not to leave town with Andrés. After Jeremy's mother Eva discovered that Andrés and Jeremy were in a relationship and planned to run away together, she called Andrés's mother Rosario. Rosario then talked to Henry, who then confronted Jeremy. Learning the truth both hurts Andrés and gives him hope. He wonders if he and Jeremy might have a future after all.

Despite Andrés's ongoing conflicts with Marco, he decides not to pursue a life and relationship with Jeremy. Simone convinces him that Marco is Andrés's true life and future. Meanwhile, Andrés develops a new connection with his mother.

Over the months that follow Andrés's return home, he realizes a series of new things about himself, his family, his friends, his past, and the place that he thought might define him. He starts spending weekends in the suburbs with his mother in the wake of his father's death. He maintains his friendship with Simone. He ends his communication with Jeremy and fixes his marriage with Marco. All of these changes help Andrés to see that his origins do not have to dictate his identity. He can return to the place he grew up and sustain connections with the people he loves, without having to sacrifice the person he has become and the beliefs he has developed.