Content Warning: This section depicts slavery and discusses racism and sexual abuse.

In a distant, postapocalyptic future, a man named Zachry narrates a story from his youth. When he was nine, he was at a place named Sloosha’s Crossin’ with his brother Adam and his father, whom he refers to as Pa. They make camp and send Zachry for firewood. While in the woods, Zachry is taunted by a mysterious spirit named Old Georgie who wants to know whether he’s “Zachry the Brave or Zachry the Cowardly” (249). When he returns to his family, Zachry is horrified to find that a rival group called the Kona attacked and killed his father. The Kona take Adam to be enslaved. Zachry runs to a man named Abel, telling him what happened but not mentioning Old Georgie. He still thinks about Georgie’s taunting words, asking whether Zachry is brave or cowardly. At 14, Zachry undergoes his people’s coming-of-age ritual. He spends a night in “the Icon’ry,” where he experiences visions of Sonmi. She speaks to him from the past, telling him revolutionary ideas.

Although Zachry’s people—the people of the Nine Valleys—live in almost stone-age conditions, they’re aware of a technologically advanced people. Twice a year, these people arrive in the market on “the Great Ship o’ the Prescients” (258).