The following version of the book was used to create this study guide: Savit, Gavriel. The Way Back. Penguin Random House, New York, NY, 2020. Kindle AZW file.

Yehuda Leib is a boy who lives in the small village of Tupik with his mother, Shulamis. He knows nothing about his father. Since they are very poor, Shulamis spends most of her time trying to provide food. Yehuda Leib rises as soon as Shulamis is gone. He travels through the town, taking bits of food wherever he can find it. One day, he also fills his mitten with salt, knowing there is none at home. Outside the synagogue, a trader named Yankl says Avimelekh is in nearby Zubinsk. Avimelekh has incurred gambling debts, and he is probably searching for boys to conscript into the military as a means of earning money. The rabbi relates this information to Shulamis. Immediately, she panics, packs a few things in a bag, and sends Yehuda Leib away. She tells him not to return and to avoid Avimelekh. However, she does not say why.

Yehuda Leib encounters a girl named Bluma. She is searching for Bubbe, her grandmother. That evening, Bubbe returns home, going directly to her room above Yehuda Leib's room. Yehuda Leib encounters the Dark Messenger entering Tupik. The Dark Messenger gives Yehuda Leib a couple of coins, then goes to Bluma's house. Bluma hears an argument and a scuffle. She knows the Dark Messenger has taken Bubbe. The Dark Messenger, who appears to everyone differently, drops its weapon before leaving Bluma's house. Bluma discovers it is a spoon. Over the next hours, Bluma discovers the entrance to the town's cemetery is also the entrance to the Far Country, which is populated by the dead and an array of demons. Bluma gives up her face to avoid the interest of those demons. She later gives up her name to avoid the Dark Messenger calling to her.

Meanwhile, Yehuda Leib travels through the forest toward Zubinsk, but Avimelekh finds him. A boy named Issur intervenes, striking Avimelekh and killing him. Immediately, the Dark Messenger arrives, and Yehuda Leib discovers Avimelekh is his father. Yehuda Leib is desperate to retrieve the points of light that the Dark Messenger retrieved from Avimelekh, following it to the Far Country. Through a series of interactions with various demons, Yehuda Leib and Bluma meet up and join forces. Bluma's only goal is to escape the Dark Messenger, sometimes called the Angel of Death. Yehuda Leib wants to recover his father and decides to kill the Dark Messenger in the process.

The final battle takes place in the tower that houses the Dark Messenger's house. The Dark Messenger explains that Yehuda Leib cannot retrieve his father after all. In a moment of rage, Yehuda Leib threatens to kill the Dark Messenger, making it finally understand why people always begged for their lives in their final moments. The living are never allowed to walk away from the Dark Messenger's house, but Bluma and Yehuda Leib back out through a window. The way back to the land of the living is to walk backwards, and they walk together for a full year. When they arrive in Tupik, they learn Yehuda Leib's mother has died. He decides he will travel now. Bluma cites the fact that her parents have each other, and she decides to go with him.