Jack Gladney, the found of Hitler Studies, and his fourth wife Babette (Baba) fear death. Their lives are filled with Midwestern, suburban technological, material culture. The book ruminates a lot on supermarkets and television. Jack's fellow teacher and friend Murray analyzes tv, the culture of kids and everything else as a system of code, a deep collectively created modern mysticism. Jack is learning German. Babette teaches posture and reads tabloids to the blind.
A black cloud of Nyodene D is spilled, there is a confused evacuation. Jack is exposed to the cloud for a little over two minutes and is told my simulated evacuators that he has a high likelihood of dying. He conceals this from everyone.
His wife meanwhile is taking Dylar, a drug to control or eliminate the fear of death. She obtains it through a drug trial and an illicit affair with a man she calls Mr. Gray (a composite, incomplete). Jack becomes obsessed, wants the drug for himself, eventually tracks down the guy Willie Mink who is mentally destroyed by Dylar, which is experimental. Jack shoots him twice but ends up shot in the wrist by the dude. They go to the hospital to get fixed up, things seem cool since Mink doesn't remember anything, thinks he shot Jack. Dylar cause people to react to words as if they were experience.
More supermarkets, lots of consumerism bad and good, focus on the innocence of kids to the fear of death, total ego.
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