The following version of this book was used to create the guide: NDiaye, Marie. Vengeance Is Mine. Alfred A. Knopf, 2023.

Marie NDiaye's novel Vengeance Is Mine is set in 2019 Bordeaux, France, and traces the protagonist Maître Susane's attempts to solve two interconnected mysteries. The novel's subversive narrative form and atypical narrative structure enact its central themes concerning the relativity of truth, the unreliability of memory, and the psychological effects of trauma. For the sake of clarity, the following summary employs the present tense and a linear mode of explanation.

In January of 2019, Maître Susane receives a visit from a man named Gilles Principaux at her law office in the city. His wife Marlyne recently murdered their three children, Jason, John, and Julia, and Gilles wants to hire Maître to defend her. Maître is excited about the case, because the Principauxs are her first high-profile clients. However, her preoccupation with Gilles Principaux distracts her from the task at hand. As soon as she sees Gilles, she is convinced that he is a boy with whom she was infatuated as a child. She remembers going to his house in Caudéran one day with her mother, Madame Susane. Madame Susane was filling in for Madame Principaux's housekeeper for the day and took Maître along. While Madame Susane ironed, Maître followed Gilles into his bedroom, where he showed her things she had never known before.

Desperate to confirm that Gilles Principaux is the person she remembers, Maître travels to La Réole to see her parents. However, Madame Susane is uncertain if the family for whom she worked in the Caudéron neighborhood 32 years prior was in fact called Principaux. Meanwhile, Monsieur Susane grows increasingly upset. He insists that Maître is remembering things incorrectly, and that Gilles in fact abused her. Furious that her parents will not corroborate her memories, Maître leaves La Réole and blocks Madame and Monsieur Susane's number.

Shortly thereafter, Maître meets up with her ex, Rudy. Although she and Rudy broke up years prior, they have remained good friends. Maître often feels that Rudy is the only person she can trust. However, after she starts ranting about her parents and their false perceptions of her day at the Principaux house, Maître regrets confiding in him. Therefore, she is glad when Rudy changes the subject to his daughter, Lila. Rudy has shared custody of Lila and asks Maître for help caring for her. Although Maître's parents sometimes watch Lila, Maître suggests that they put Lila in her housekeeper Sharon's care instead.

When Lila quickly falls in love with Sharon, Maître feels threatened by this dynamic. Rudy insists that Lila has never been happier or better taken care of, but Maître is suspicious of Sharon. She has been trying to help Sharon get proper documentation so she can legally work in France, but Sharon seems determined to stall the case and withhold important information from Maître.

Meanwhile, Maître researches the Principaux case and conducts several interviews with Gilles and Marlyne. The more information she obtains, however, the less she understands what happened in the Principaux house. Her confusion over her relationship to Gilles similarly builds.

Then one day, Maître decides to stay with Sharon's brother Ralph and sister-in-law Christine. Sharon has informed her that they have her marriage certificate. Throughout her time at Ralph and Christine's, Maître meditates upon her circumstances and her past. Gradually she begins to remember things about her life and herself. She suddenly realizes that Rudy loves her and that Lila is her daughter. She also longs to reconnect with her parents. After procuring the marriage certificate for Sharon, she waits for a taxi back to Bordeaux. A man who Maître believes is Gilles attacks her on the street. Instead of succumbing, Maître fights back.

Maître feels empowered and triumphant when she returns to Bordeaux. She has overcome Gilles and no longer feels afraid of him. Shortly thereafter, she, Rudy, and Lila visit her parents in La Réole. She cannot exactly make sense of their dynamic, but does not ask questions for fear of disrupting the happy scene. She tells Lila that she is back in her life now.