The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Li, Yiyun. Wednesday's Child. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.

Yiyun Li's Wednesday's Child is a collection of 11 short stories. All of the stories in the collection possess their own distinct narrative worlds, cast of characters, and formal rules. The following guide relies upon the present tense and a linear mode of explanation for the sake of clarity.

In the first short story, the titular "Wednesday's Child," Rosalie takes a trip abroad by herself four years after her daughter Marcie dies by suicide. Because Rosalie's mother has convinced her that she must have done something to cause Marcie's death, Rosalie spends the trip trying to understand her maternal failings. She writes notes to Marcie in her journal and reflects upon her relationship with her own mother. By the end of her train ride from Amsterdam to Brussels, she realizes that her love for Marcie was always gentler than her mother's love for her.

In "A Sheltered Woman," Auntie Mei takes a job with a new client. She works as a temporary live-in nanny, and helps new mothers care for their infants. When she meets Chanel and her husband, she takes the job although she does not like them. However, she settles into Chanel's house throughout her contract and begins to wonder what would happen if she stayed on with the family.

In "Hello, Goodbye," Nina feels trapped at home with her husband and daughters when the nation goes on lockdown during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. However, Nina feels less lonely when her best friend Katie leaves her husband and moves in with her. Throughout the lockdown, the friends share conversations that change Nina's outlook on the past, present, and future.

In "A Small Flame," Bella travels to Beijing with her friend Peter and his boyfriend Adrian. After Peter and Adrian fly home, Bella is left alone to reflect upon her fraught childhood. Her memories of her adoptive parents, childhood friend, and grade school drama teacher challenge how she thinks about love.

In "On the Street Where You Live," Becky is desperate to do everything to give her son Jude a good life. Because Jude has autism, she blames herself for his condition. She spends her days seeking out new therapies for Jude and writing notes to him in her notebook, which she plans to give him later. In the meantime, Becky's experiences with a potential music teacher for Jude and a mugger in the street complicate Becky's understanding of motherhood.

In "Such Common Life," Ida and Edwina form an unlikely friendship when Ida becomes Edwina's live-in caretaker. The women spend their days sharing stories and discussing ideas. When Ida opens up to Edwina about her fraught past, Edwina wonders if she should finally reveal her secrets, too.

In "A Flawless Silence," for years, Min has been receiving emails from a professor who was supposed to be her father-in-law. The professor has continued to contact Min ever since she decided to marry Rich instead of his son, because he wants to remind her of the life she could have had. Min finally decides that she does not want the professor in her life and tells him to stop bothering her.

In "Let Mothers Doubt," Narantuyaa takes a trip to Paris by herself. While away, she reflects upon her brother Jullian's recent death and the end of her affair with a man named Mark. Once she recalls the events on the day of Jullian's death, she starts to understand life, death, loss, and love better.

In "Alone," Suchen meets Walter at a ski lodge restaurant in the off season. When Walter tells Suchen about his wife's recent passing, Suchen tells him her biggest secret. The two share an unexpected understanding.

In "When We Were Happy We Had Other Names," Jiayu cannot make sense of her son Evan's death by suicide. Unable to process her grief, she makes a spreadsheet of all the people she has known who have died. The spreadsheet makes her remember her late grandfather, and helps her mourn him and her son.

In "All Will Be Well," the unnamed first person narrator visits a salon regularly. She loves listening to her stylist Lily tell stories, and is thankful that she does not have to share her own accounts. However, Lily's story about her unrequited childhood romance causes the narrator to experience intense emotions and to reflect upon her own fraught relationships.