: The heroes of the novel move from 1984 to 1Q84. Trying to find a way out of the new reality, where they were not of their own free will, they finally find true values ​​and find their true "I".

Book I. April — June

Aomame, a 29-year-old young woman with a stern, expressionless face, gets stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. The woman is in a hurry. She goes down the fire ladder directly to the metro station and, without knowing it, finds herself in a parallel world.

Tengo Kawana, a tall and handsome mathematics teacher and writer, suspects that the man who raised him is not his biological father. Father Tengo never said why his mother died. They did not have a single family photograph.

Tengo meets with an editor, a longtime acquaintance, who asks him to correct the unusual but clumsy written novel, "The Air Cocoon," by 17-year-old Eriko Fukada.

During the first meeting, Eriko makes a vivid impression on Tengo. A girl with expressive, bottomless eyes is more beautiful than in the photo. Eriko has a strange manner of speaking, she answers briefly, and asks without interrogative intonation.

Tengo delves into the work on the text. The ten-year-old heroine of the Air Cocoon lives in a mountain community and looks after the old blind goat, which represents the Great Sense for the community. When the goat dies, the girl is punished - locked in a barn with the corpse of a goat for ten days and nights. LittlePeople make their way through the goat into this world at night, and go back with the dawn. They teach the girl to weave an Air Cocoon.

Aomame goes to the weeping housewife, Weeping Villa, for home-abused women. She pays her for the murders of domestic sadists, whose actions the police look through with her fingers.

Due to some strange inconsistencies, Aomame realizes that she got to another time.

Call it one thousand seven hundred eighty-four. And write: 1Q84. “Q” is like the English Question.

Aomame is a fitness and martial arts instructor at a sports club. In this club, she met the hostess.

On the first murder, Aomame was pushed by the death of her best friend - she hanged herself, unable to bear the bullying of her husband. He became the first victim of Aomame.

Guardian Eriko, scientist Ebisuno, tells Tengo about the girl’s family. Her father created the successful “Vanguard” commune, which split into “moderate” and “militants”. After the split, Eri escaped from the community to Ebisuno Sensei, and the Vanguard turned into a religious sect. Erie did not name the reasons for the flight from the sect. Sensei sees in the "Air Cocoon" the key to unraveling what happened in the "Vanguard". He agrees to the processing of the text.

Tengo recalls a classmate whose parents belonged to a religious sect. Once Tengo protected her from a classmate, and she shook his hand in an empty classroom. This girl was Aomame.

Sitting on his balcony, Aomame sees two moons in the sky: one is ordinary yellow, the other is smaller, greenish.

They became close with the mistress when Aomame told the one about the murder of her husband Tamaki. The mistress's daughter also committed suicide, unable to withstand domestic violence. The mother deprived the husband of the daughter of everything that he had in life, and then established a shelter. The hostess asked Aomame for help: only she, possessing manual abilities, could kill a sadistic pervert, leaving no traces. Aomame agreed.

The hostess introduces Aomame to ten-year-old Tsubasa, raped by an adult man. Parents gave her the leader of the sect "Vanguard", in which they themselves were. The rapist must be removed so that there are no new victims. The hostess wants to adopt Tsubasa, because her daughter committed suicide in the sixth month of pregnancy.

LittlePeople come out of Tsubasa's mouth at night and begin to pull the strings out of the air.

Having finished work on The Air Cocoon, Tengo feels a craving for writing - he was so captivated by someone else's text. He throws away everything that was written earlier and is taken for a new novel.

After the meeting between Sensei and Tengo, Eri remains to spend the night with a mathematician. In the morning, when he wakes up, Eri is gone. Tengo flashed the thought that he had fallen in love with her.

In the middle of the night, the editor calls and says that Erie’s book is on the bestseller list, but she herself has disappeared.

Soon Tengo receives a cassette from Erie in the mail. She hides and warns him of danger.

Book II. July — September

Aomame learns that Tsubasa left the shelter at night. A day earlier, a guard shepherd was killed. The girl seemed to have been warned - it’s better to leave, otherwise the people around her will die.

Despite the danger and enormous influence of Vanguard, Aomame is ready to eliminate the Leader, and then disappear. She asks the security guard to find her a gun: Aomame cannot stand the torture, so she will shoot herself if she is caught.

The hostess says that Aomame can get close to the Leader as a professional instructor. Something strange is going on with his body, and the sect is looking for a good specialist. Security will not be present during the procedure - this is the desire of the Leader.

The meeting takes place in the dark: the Leader has problems with the retina. Accustomed to dusk, Aomame sees a man of huge stature with a piercing gaze.

The leader says that sometimes his body is completely stony. At the same time, an erection does not stop, although he does not experience sexual desire. At such moments, ten-year-old concubines are sent to him so that one of them gives birth to an heir, although at their age this is impossible. The leader understands this, but everyone expects a miracle from him.

Even knowing that she came here to kill the Leader, Aomame goes about his business. After class, the Leader says to Aomame: "I just listen to a Voice and pass on what I hear." He was endowed with power by Little People. Aomame understands: the man knows that she came to kill him. The leader asks to interrupt his life: the disease weighs on him. With his death, LittlePeople will lose the one who hears the Voice, but he does not have an heir. Upon learning of his torment, Aomame decides not to kill the Leader: let him torment, but he offers to kill him in exchange for the life of Tengo, co-author of his daughter Eri. He, like Aomame, ended up in 1Q84.

LittlePeople brought Erie when she was ten.

The daughter acted as a receiver - one who is aware of everything through feelings. And I'm like a receiver, the one who takes everything on himself.

The girl confronts LittlePeople paired with Tengo. If Aomame kills the Leader, LittlePeople will have no reason to harm Tengo, but the sectarians will chase the killer until they find it. The leader says that Tengo remembers and loves Aomame, and the woman kills him. A severe thunderstorm begins.

Tengo travels by train to the nursing home, where he placed his father suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He is trying to find out from his father whether he is his biological son and what happened to his mother, but the old man does not answer.

Eri settles in Tengo's apartment. He is calling to his home. Eri says LittlePeople are furious, Tengo must return home before the start of a thunderstorm. Erie thinks Tengo needs to be cleansed. She asks him to lie down and hug her. Tengo is pleased to lie next to a seventeen-year-old beauty, but he does not feel physical attraction.

Tengo wakes up naked. Nearby is Nude Erie. His body seemed to be petrified. What happens between them cannot be called sex. The girl reassures him - she can not get pregnant. Tengo seems to be alone with Aomame.

In the morning, Erie behaves as if nothing had happened at night. Tengo calls the editor and finds out that the editor is sick. Tengo is worried about his disappearance, he shares this with Eri. But she tells Tengo that he has cleansed himself. Tengo tries to find out something about Aomame, but to no avail. Erie thinks she's somewhere nearby.

Aomame learns that the sect did not contact the police after the Leader’s murder. She reads The Air Cocoon, which declassifies the existence of LittlePeople, exactly the same little men, similar to gnomes.The main character helped them weave a cocoon. Peering into the crack of the cocoon, she saw herself there. LittlePeople explained that this is Dota girls, and she herself is Maza, and she must protect her Dota. The girl runs away, and LittlePeople create several new Dot to ensure wide and stable access to our world. As a result, a whole team of girls-receivers appeared who became concubines of the Leader. Tsubasa was one of them. But the Leader copulated only with their DotA shadows.

Aomame goes to the balcony to watch the moons and notices a young man on a children's slide. She is sure that he also sees two moons. It dawns on her: this is Tengo. She runs out into the yard, but he does not catch.

Eri tells Tengo that remembering Aomame will help him find her. After much deliberation, Tengo recalls that the day that Aomame shook his hand, he saw the moon in the classroom window. In search of a place from which to observe the moon, Tengo wanders into a children's park and sees two moons.

At home, Eri informs him of the call from the shelter. Tengo's father is in a coma. The son decides to go to the shelter.

Aomame chooses the outfit she was in when she got stuck in traffic on a highway. She catches a taxi, drives along the same freeway and gets into a traffic jam, Aomame goes out in the middle of the highway, but does not find a fire escape there. Exit in 1984 is closed. Aomame pronounces the name Tengo and puts a gun in his mouth.

The doctor and nurse ask Tengo to talk with his father - this can help. In the evening, the father is taken for examination. Tengo returns to the empty ward and sees Air Cocoon on his father’s bed, and in it is young Aomame. Gradually, darkness engulfs the room and the radiance of Cocoon. Tengo vows to find Aomame.

Book III. October December

Sectarians Bonza and Tailed require Detective Usikawa to investigate Aomame's disappearance. The detective is convinced that Aomame is a member of a powerful organization. He asks about Tengo and Eri, but Bonza claims that they are no longer interested in the organization. Usikawa hides from sectarians the connection between Aomame and the mistress of the shelter and decides to take up this version himself.

Usikawa learns that the mistress is a wealthy widow. He suggests that her daughter was a victim of domestic violence and committed suicide, but did not die from the disease. This explains the desire of the hostess to maintain a shelter for women. Usikawa suggests that Aomame has a special killing technique, but he cannot find the Leader’s connection with “Counseling for Women Victims of Domestic Violence”. It is dangerous for a detective to wipe himself near the “Weeping Villa” because of his unusual appearance.

Usikawa learns that Aomame studied in the same place as Tengo did.

But at the same time, he believed in his instinct, which suggested that in the present reality, Tengo and Aomame are not connected by anything.

Aomame doesn't want to kill himself. She hopes to meet Tengo again at that playground. The woman decides to stay in the apartment for a short while. Aomame is pregnant, although she has not had sex for a long time. She thinks this is a baby tengo.

Tengo takes the weekend and goes to his father. He sits with the old man all day, and in the evening he writes a novel at the hotel. He calls the publisher, but there’s still no editor. Tengo agrees to spend the evening with three nurses, after which he enters one of their apartments, smokes hashish, recalls Aomame's handshake, and as if he hears a voice that whispers: “Find me before it's too late.” Tengo decides to leave and reports his decision to his father.

Usikawa was an exception in his family. Beautiful, slender brothers and sister did not notice him - a dwarf. The detective is divorced. His daughters have a new, normal dad. Usikawa has not been in contact with them for four years now. Usikawa used to be a lawyer, doing dark business until he was expelled from the Tokyo Bar Association.

The detective manages to rent an apartment on the first floor in the Tengo house, From there he begins to follow.

Somehow he sees Eri coming out of the entrance. She is looking directly at Usikawa. It is impossible to detect surveillance outside, but the detective feels: the girl knows that he is here. In the morning, Eri leaves with a huge bag.

Tengo returns.Eri left him a letter warning that the apartment was being watched. Tengo realizes that she will never return.

That evening, he again comes to the children's slide and looks at the sky. Usikawa watches him. When Tengo leaves, Usikawa climbs a hill, looks up at the sky and sees two moons.

The hostess's security guard tells Aomame that some dwarf is hanging around the Weeping Villa. Aomame goes to the balcony and sees Usikawa, the stocky little boy hobbling from the park. Tengo left a few minutes earlier.

The next day, Tengo calls the editor, and they arrange to meet. The editor was not sick - he was stolen by types from Vanguard and demanded to stop the further release of Air Cocoon in exchange for his life.

Usikawa decides not to follow Tengo, but returns to that park again. Aomame notices him and understands that this is the dwarf that the guard spoke of. She goes out into the street and watches him until the entrance, where she sees a “Kavanah” sign on one of the mailboxes.

Having again taken the place of observation, Usikawa sees a young woman of a sports physique emerging from the entrance, who is similar in description to Aomame. She goes quickly, and the detective does not have time to run after her.

Upon returning, Aomame reports Usikawa to the guard and asks for the name of Mr. Kawana.

At night, Tengo learns about the death of his father. He goes to a sanatorium where the deceased's lawyer left a sealed bag for him. In it, he finds a family photo of his parents.

Not seeing Tengo leaving the house in the morning, Usikawa calls to college and finds out that his father died. A detective recalls information about Tengo's mother. She was strangled when the boy was not even two years old. After picking up little Tengo, she ran away from home with a man who strangled her with a dressing gown and disappeared. After receiving a message about the tragedy, the father took the baby home.

Aomame believes that Eri uttered “Air Cocoon” to convey a message to people, after which the novel became a reality. Perhaps Aomame is Maza, and the child she is expecting is her Dota.

The guard, through torture, finds out what information Usikawa was able to obtain. After that, he strangles the detective and informs the sectarians about his death. "Vanguard" asks for a meeting with Aomame. The situation has changed, they will not harm her, now the woman is interested in them for another reason.

Bonza and Tailed are transporting the detective’s body to the community. After a conversation with the authorities, Bonza recalls that Tengo Kawana lives in the same house where Usikawa was killed. The sectarian believes that Tengo is the key to Aomame, and immediately goes to him with Tailed.

The mouth of the corpse of Usikawa opens wide, and from there six LittlePeople appear, and a particle of Usikawa’s soul goes to the construction of the Air Cocoon.

The guard tells Aomame that the dwarf is neutralized, and Mr. Kawana is indeed Tengo. Aomame tells the guard about a deal between her and the Leader. He gives her the terms of the "Vanguard." Aomame believes that the sect needs her child. Through the guard, she makes an appointment on the hill.

According to Aomame, she conceived of the One Who Hears the Voice. Now she will not allow herself to be manipulated and will fight for the child until the last breath.

Tengo meets Aomame. She says that during a terrible thunderstorm in early September she became pregnant from Tengo. He recalls the intercourse with Erie that night and believes in her.

Aomame decides that it is necessary to look for a way out in 1984, and not an entrance from the highway, as last time. She finds the stairs, and with Tengo returns in due time. They rent a hotel room, from the window of which only one moon is visible.