Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Summary by Chapter | Gabrielle Zevin
This Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Summary by Chapter walks through each section of the novel, from the pair’s childhood meeting to the creative rebirth that defines its closing pages.
The full guide is available: the complete Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow summary.
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Book Structure Overview
| Part | Title | Sub-sections | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Sick Kids | Chapters 1–3 | The 1995 reunion and 1987 hospital origin |
| II | Influences | Chapters 1–6 | The creation of Ichigo in Cambridge |
| III | Unfair Games | Chapters 1–6 | Success, move to L.A., and Sam’s amputation |
| IV | Both Sides | Sections 1A–5B | Development of Both Sides and Sam’s phantom pain |
| V | Pivots | Chapters 1–2 | Post-Both Sides recovery and Tokyo trip |
| VI | Marriages | Chapters 1–5 | Mapleworld success and the office tragedy |
| VII | The NPC | Continuous | Marx’s coma and transition into death |
| VIII | Our Infinite Days | Chapters 1–6 | Grief, Naomi’s birth, and finding the Worths |
| IX | Pioneers | Continuous | The world of Pioneers as communication |
| X | Freights and Grooves | Chapters 1–4 | Final reconciliation in New York |
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Summary Chapter by Chapter
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This section contains detailed, chapter-by-chapter plot summaries.
Part I: Sick Kids
Chapter 1
In late December 1995, Sam Masur spots Sadie Green in a crowded Boston subway station and calls out an Oregon Trail reference to catch her attention. They haven’t spoken for years but immediately fall back into their rhythm of understanding one another while trying to see a Magic Eye poster.
Sam is late for a meeting with his math advisor, Anders Larsson, who tells him that being good at math is not the same as loving it. Sadie hands Sam a disk labeled Solution, a game she designed at MIT. Back at his apartment, Sam’s roommate Marx Watanabe plays it and is blown away by Sadie’s genius.
Sam realizes his own “solution” to life lies in building worlds with Sadie. The chapter establishes Sam’s mixed-race identity and his use of a cane due to a childhood injury.
Chapter 2
The narrative flashes back to 1987 at a children’s hospital in Los Angeles where Sam and Sadie first met. Sam was recovering from a car accident that shattered his foot, while Sadie was visiting her sister Alice, who had leukemia. They bonded in the hospital game room over Nintendo, finding a shared escape from family traumas.
Sadie’s mother encouraged her to log the visits as community service for her Bat Mitzvah. For fourteen months, they became great playmates, but the secret of the timesheet hung between them. Alice eventually reveals its existence to Sam during a blood test visit.
Feeling like a charity project, Sam lashes out with a cruel insult and severs the friendship. Sadie tries to apologize through a BASIC program, but Sam refuses to see her, ending their bond for nearly eight years.
Chapter 3
Sadie is a student in Dov Mizrah’s Advanced Games seminar at MIT, one of only two women in the class. Dov is a legendary and vulgar designer who recently released the hit game Dead Sea. Sadie’s first game, EmilyBlaster, is mocked by the class but subtly praised by Dov.
For her second project, she creates Solution, a Holocaust-themed game that offends a classmate but earns Dov’s admiration. Sadie begins a complicated affair with Dov, who is married but separated, becoming his mistress for a year. The relationship leaves her feeling withered and uncreative.
Running into Sam in the subway provides the catalyst she needs to finally break away from Dov, setting the stage for their creative reunion.
Part II: Influences
Chapter 1
In March, Sam formally proposes that he and Sadie spend the summer making a game together at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. He uses the Glass Flowers exhibit as a dramatic backdrop, though it is actually closed for cleaning. Sam convinces her by revealing Marx has agreed to let them use his apartment for free and act as their producer.
Sam believes this summer is his last chance to do something grand before student loans come due. They begin brainstorming on a whiteboard Sam stole from the Harvard Science Center. Sadie agrees to the partnership, realizing she is at a professional crossroads.
Chapter 2
Marx performs as Orsino in Twelfth Night, which inspires Sadie with its elaborate shipwreck scene. She decides their game should start with a child lost at sea, which Sam suggests should be gender-neutral. After the play, they have dinner with Marx’s father, Ryu, a wealthy investor who regrets not investing in Nintendo.
Ryu shares his childhood fear of being washed away by great rains, reinforcing the game’s theme. Sadie decides the art style should be based on Hokusai’s The Great Wave at Kanagawa. They debate the ethics of appropriation as they use Japanese cultural references. This chapter also reveals Sam’s early love for the Donkey Kong machine in his grandfather’s pizza parlor.
Chapter 3
Marx returns early from a London internship and begins acting as a true producer, organizing workflow and finances. He suggests the name Ichigo (meaning strawberry or 1-5) for the main character and the game. Marx views the game as a homecoming and language narrative inspired by his mother’s struggle with Japanese.
Marx asks Sam if he can ask Sadie out, but Sam discourages it to protect the professional dynamic. Marx finds Sadie more interesting than his usual partners, seeing her as a book one could read many times. The trio settles into a productive rhythm in the Kennedy Street apartment.
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Chapter 4
Sadie struggles with building the lighting and physics engine for the opening storm sequence. Sam criticizes her first attempt, leading to a heated argument. Sam researches other game engines and discovers Dov Mizrah’s Ulysses engine in Sadie’s collection, encouraging her to call Dov for help without knowing the full extent of their past.
Dov agrees to give them the engine in exchange for becoming a producer and equity partner on Ichigo. Marx immediately dislikes Dov, sensing lingering intimacy and potential abuse of power. Sadie decides to take the semester off school and moves back in with Dov to finish the game.
Chapter 5
Ichigo is completed a year after Sam and Sadie reunited, but the process has physically broken them both. Sadie bursts a blood vessel in her eye, and Sam faints on the street from malnourishment. Marx hires his ex-girlfriend Zoe to compose the score. The ending features the character returning home as a weary ten-year-old, unrecognizable to their parents.
On the morning they finish, Sam skips with joy and slips on ice, breaking his ankle. While unconscious, he has a vision of his mother, Anna Lee, speaking to him. The chapter details the tragic story of how Anna Lee died in a car accident when Sam was twelve.
Chapter 6
Sam is hospitalized for emergency surgery on his ankle, leaving Marx and Sadie to search for him. They bring champagne to the hospital to toast their first game, and the nurse observes the deep platonic love between them. In January, Sadie brings the finished game to Dov, who reacts with genuine tears of pride.
However, Dov’s behavior remains controlling; he handcuffs Sadie to his bed so she won’t leave while he plays the game. Sadie realizes that while Dov’s engine helped them, it might overshadow her own work. Despite the handcuffs, Sadie calls Sam to check on Dov’s progress, highlighting her split loyalty.
Part III: Unfair Games
Chapter 1
This short chapter explains the origin of the company name, Unfair Games. Marx believes it comes from The Tempest, Sadie thinks it’s a mantra from her childhood, and Sam remembers thinking games were fairer than life. The trio officially adopts the name for their studio.
Chapter 2
A conflict arises over Ichigo‘s gender when seeking a publisher. Opus Interactive wants Ichigo to be a boy for better sales, while Cellar Door Games is fine with a gender-neutral character and offers creative freedom. Sadie wants to sign with Cellar Door, but Sam pushes for the massive advance from Opus to pay off his medical bills and student loans.
Sadie eventually concedes to the Opus deal for Sam’s sake. After the launch, Sam becomes the famous face of the game, while Sadie feels diminished and overlooked. Sam’s tragic backstory becomes part of the marketing lore, creating a rift in their partnership.
Chapter 3
Ichigo II: Go, Ichigo, Go is released in 1998 but is a creative disappointment, seen as coasting on the original. Sadie tells Sam and Marx she refuses to make a third Ichigo, leading to a massive fight about their future. Sam accuses Sadie of abandoning their child in a bad sequel, while Sadie considers leaving Unfair Games.
Sam eventually comes to her apartment on a snowy night, buzzed in by a reluctant Sadie. He apologizes and asks to hear her new idea, which she reveals is called Both Sides. They settle into their old collaborative rhythm on her sofa.
Chapter 4
Sadie explains the mechanics of Both Sides, inspired by the Xyzzy command in Colossal Cave Adventure. The game will toggle between an ordinary real world and a fantasy world. While they work on the design, Sam’s foot begins to rot and bleed again, with a metal rod poking through his flesh.
Marx finds him and insists he see a doctor, where they learn an amputation is inevitable to prevent sepsis. Marx’s girlfriend Zoe suggests moving the company to California for Sam’s recovery. Marx manipulates both Sam and Sadie into agreeing to the move by using their mutual concern as leverage.
Chapter 5
Sadie breaks up with Dov and prepares to leave for California, taking the handcuffs with her as a final act of closure. Dov reacts poorly, insulting her and attempting to assert control one last time. Sadie flies to L.A. in business class, where Marx and Zoe pick her up and show her the new Venice office.
Sam goes into surgery for his amputation the next morning. Before he goes in, Sadie gives him her Bat Mitzvah community service record as a peace offering, marking a permanent physical shift in his life.
Chapter 6
Sadie unpacks her office and finds the disk of Dead Sea that Dov had signed for her years ago. She realizes Sam must have seen the inscription and therefore knew Dov was her boyfriend when he pushed her to go to him. She feels betrayed, believing Sam prioritized the game over her well-being.
While Sam is in surgery, Sadie stays in the office playing Dead Sea instead of going to the hospital. She explains the twist of Dead Sea to Marx: the main character is actually a zombie killing her own kind.
Part IV: Both Sides
These sections contrast the development of Both Sides with the personal struggles of the characters in L.A. Sam moves into a Silver Lake bungalow and struggles with phantom limb pain that makes him feel like his bones are crumbling. Sadie thrives in Venice, embracing a California costume and dating a musician named Abe Rocket.
Work on Both Sides is divided: Sam builds the Mapletown hospital world based on his own illness, while Sadie builds the plague-stricken Myre Landing. Sam creates a girlfriend for himself, Lola, who helps him through recovery and intimacy issues.
When Both Sides is released, it receives mixed to bad reviews, with critics calling it schizophrenic and pretentious. The failure leads to an explosive confrontation where Sadie accuses Sam of manipulation and reveals she had an abortion during her MIT depression. They end the night smoking a joint together, an uncharacteristic act for Sam that signifies a shift in their dynamic.
Part V: Pivots
Chapter 1
Unfair Games pivots to producing games for other designers, leading to the massive success of Counterpart High (CPH) by Simon and Ant. Sadie is initially resentful but eventually mentors the younger designers, using her Oneiric engine to power their game. She calls Dov for advice on handling failure, and he tells her to fail better and return to work.
Sadie attends her sister Alice’s wedding and is surprised to find Alice and many other gamers preferred Sam’s Mapletown section of Both Sides. Sam becomes a fitness-obsessed Mazer, changing his appearance and legal name to suit his public persona, while their personal dynamic remains cold.
Chapter 2
Marx and Sadie travel to Tokyo together for business meetings with Morikami Publishing. Marx has just broken up with Zoe, and Sadie feels adrift after the failure of Both Sides. In Japan, they bond over arcade games and visits to shrines where Sadie finds spaciousness.
Marx’s mother, a textile designer, shows them the Strawberry Thief pattern, which inspires Marx with the idea to turn Mapletown into an MMORPG. During the trip, Sadie and Marx finally sleep together, starting a romantic relationship they keep secret from Sam.
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Part VI: Marriages
Chapter 1
The Mapleworld Experience launches in October 2001 and becomes a cultural phenomenon as a utopian escape. Sam’s avatar, Mayor Mazer, becomes one of the most recognizable characters in the world. Sam gives a TED Talk about the possibility of utopia in virtual worlds, arguing they can be more moral than the real one.
Chapter 2
Sam discovers Sadie and Marx’s relationship during a road trip to Dov’s wedding in Tiburon. He reacts with coldness, insulting Marx as boring and an NPC. This leads to Sam and Sadie officially splitting their creative duties; Sadie begins working on Master of the Revels alone, while Sam focuses on Mapleworld.
Sadie and Marx buy a Boho Dream house in Venice and plan a life together. Sam shaves his head in a fit of despair, which Marx helps him finish, marking the dissolution of Sam and Sadie’s creative partnership.
Chapter 3
Simon and Ant get married in San Francisco during a brief legal window in 2004. When their marriage is voided by the court, Sadie insists Mapleworld should allow virtual marriages. The Marriages update leads to massive controversy and hate mail directed at Sam, which he embraces as a political statement.
Chapter 4
Sam and Sadie go on a promotional tour for Master of the Revels in November 2005. During the tour, Sadie realizes she is pregnant with Marx’s child. While in New York for a photo shoot, they receive a text that there is an active shooter at the Unfair office in Venice.
Chapter 5
Two fans of Mapleworld, angry over the gay stuff in the game, enter the office to kill Sam. Marx, acting as the CEO, goes down to confront them to protect the staff. Marx is shot three times, and one of the shooters kills himself. Before passing out, Marx receives a text from Sadie asking if he is okay.
Part VII: The NPC
This part is narrated from Marx’s perspective while he is in a medically induced coma. He dreams of flying as a bird and revisits memories of his life, his parents, and his love for Sam and Sadie. He recalls the shooting and his decision to sacrifice himself, acknowledging there is no game without the NPCs.
He observes Sam and Sadie in his hospital room as they fold one thousand paper cranes for him. Eventually, his brain detaches from the body, and he dies, leaving a void that Sam and Sadie struggle to fill.
Part VIII: Our Infinite Days
Chapter 1
The narrative looks back at the first time Sam saw Marx die during a 1993 production of Macbeth where Marx played Banquo. Sam was the one who rehearsed the murder scene with Marx, hiding behind doors with a pillow. This memory highlights the 4,873 days of their friendship and the deep intimacy Sam felt he could never replicate.
Chapter 2
Simon calls Sam seventy-two days after the shooting, asking when they will return to the office to finish CPH4. Sam returns to the Venice office alone to face the physical reminders of the tragedy, including deep bloodstains on the floor. He speaks with Sadie, who is unreachable and hostile, refusing to return to the building.
Chapter 3
Sadie is in the depths of clinical postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter, Naomi. She refuses to return to the office or speak to Sam, even after he mops the sidewalk where she vomited. Sam struggles to run Unfair alone, dealing with his own grief and the pressure of the Revels expansion pack.
Chapter 4
Naomi Watanabe Green is born in July, but Sam does not visit, fearing the sight of Marx’s face in the baby. He keeps his distance as requested but checks in on Sadie through her sister, Alice, marking the arrival of the child Marx never got to see.
Chapter 5
Unfair throws a Grad Night party to celebrate the launch of CPH4. Sam finds the Worths’ portfolio for Our Infinite Days on Sadie’s desk and realizes it was the last game Marx wanted to make. He talks to Ant, who is struggling with guilt over the shooting, and decides to produce the Worths’ game as a tribute to Marx.
Chapter 6
Sam begins work with Charlotte and Adam Worth. Charlotte shows Sam an Easter egg Sadie hid in a Master of the Revels expansion: a digital version of Marx performing the Tomorrow speech. Seeing Marx speak again gives Sam hope and inspires him to build a new game for Sadie called Pioneers.
Part IX: Pioneers
This part details Sadie’s experience, as avatar Emily B. Marks, playing Pioneers, a game Sam built just for her using her own engine. She builds a farm, opens a bookstore, and eventually marries the town’s optometrist, Dr. Edna Daedalus. Through the game, she processes her grief and finds a sense of friendship.
She eventually realizes Edna is Sam, who used her IP address to lure her back into play. Sadie is initially angry at the trick, but the experience helps her heal. She leaves a digital will and exits the game world, acknowledging the kindness of the place Sam built.
Part X: Freights and Grooves
Chapter 1
Years later, Sadie has brunch with Dov, who is getting divorced again. They discuss Sam and Pioneers, and Dov tells Sadie she should reconcile with Sam because true collaborators in this life are rare. Sadie admits she is no longer angry.
Chapter 2
Sadie is teaching at MIT and raising Naomi. She sends Sam a Magic Eye book after Naomi successfully sees the hidden images. Ant visits her class, and they discuss Marx, with Sadie realizing she can finally hear his name without weeping, signaling her reaching out to Sam.
Chapter 3
Sam’s grandfather, Dong Hyun, dies of cancer. Sam takes care of him until the end, finding it easier to say I love you than ever before. Sadie travels to Los Angeles for the funeral. They reconcile when Sam tells her Dong Hyun left her his original Donkey Kong machine in his will.
Chapter 4
Sam and Sadie meet in New York to discuss a third Ichigo pitch from ReveJeux. They decide that only they should make their games and companionably play the sample level together. At the airport, Sam asks her to make a game with him again.
Sadie hands him a drive for a new game she has started called Ludo Sextus, signaling the restart of their partnership and the novel’s closing affirmation that their bond offers infinite restarts.
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