The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Cook, Diane. The New Wilderness. HarperCollins, 2020.

Cook tells her story largely chronologically, dividing the tale of a 15-year study of how humans survive in the Wilderness, the world’s only remaining natural environment, into seven titled sections, which she calls “Parts.” The novel’s protagonists are Bea and her daughter Agnes; a third-person narrator focuses on Bea for the first half of the novel and Agnes for the second half.

Before the novel begins, the novel’s bold and brash heroine Beatrice is faced with a difficult choice: stay in the City whose polluted air is killing her five-year-old daughter Agnes, or risk both their lives by embarking on an endless walk through an unforgiving wilderness. Glen, Bea’s kind and loyal boyfriend, is the architect of the Wilderness study and convinces her to participate. They are three of a group of twenty who are granted permission by the Administration to form a nomadic tribe of hunters and gatherers in the Wilderness. Their instructions are to leave a minimal footprint, subject to medical exams, follow the rules of the Manual—enforced by the Rangers—and never stay in one place too long.

The group of twenty, called the Community, is delusional about the dangers of their new reality, preparing pancakes on their first morning instead of rationing their supplies. In the beginning, they do not know how to protect themselves against the elements and wild animals they live amidst, and so they suffer many losses. They become accustomed to death, hunger, and discomfort to the point that they do not give it a second thought.

The novel’s chronological plot begins four years into the study with Bea, who gives birth to stillborn named Madeline. Agnes, now almost nine years old, has grown up in the Wilderness, leading her to develop animalistic characteristics and a free spirit like her mother. The Community is now only twelve people, which dwindles to eleven when Caroline dies trying to traverse a river. The day after her death, a Ranger tells them they must immediately begin a long and largely unknown trek to the Lower Post to receive new instructions.

During their Big Walk across uncharted land, Bea begins to struggle to understand her growing daughter. This tension forces her to self-reflect on motherhood and its incompatibility with her desire to be untethered and to instill self-sufficient autonomy in her daughter. At times, she feels like an outsider in the Community. When Carl, the group’s de facto leader, shares her bed, she is comforted and starts to develop feelings for him.

When the Community finally reaches the Lower Post, there are no Rangers nor instructions. They spend a few days there and explore the buildings, finding an office that contains all their mail from the City since they left. Bea opens letters from her mother, who tells her she has terminal cancer, and then a government notice informing Bea that she must return to handle the affairs of her late mother’s estate. A truck drives by the Lower Post, and in a moment of devastation and desperation, Bea jumps into the vehicle and instructs the driver to bring her back to the City. Nine-year-old Agnes watches as her mother abandons her, perhaps forever, in the Wilderness.

Agnes, angry and resentful of her mother, takes the reins of the narrative after Bea suddenly leaves. Agnes likewise does not understand her mother’s actions and works hard to establish her own authentic identity in the Community. She gains their respect as a fearless leader and masterful pathfinder, navigating them from the Lower Post to a “pick up location” they were instructed to travel to by the Rangers.

When they reach their destination, they realize they are not being picked up, but instead are picking up new people to join the study. Their numbers return to twenty, divided into two equal factions: Newcomers and Originalists. The Originalists, officially led by Carl, teach the Newcomers the laws and ways of the land. Among the new is a teenage boy named Jake who Agnes develops feelings for. One day, the Rangers appear and instruct them to return to Middle Post. When they reach the Middle Post, Bea suddenly appears out of nowhere, back from the City to rejoin her Wilderness family.

Bea and Agnes do not immediately reconcile, for Agnes is cold and mistrustful. Moreover, as over a year has passed, their incomprehension of each other has grown in depth and intensity. However, when Bea apologizes for leaving, Agnes ultimately forgives, though she keeps her guard up around her mother. Bea begins to have sex with Carl, which Glen allows, though he is saddened.

Three years passes and Agnes, a teenager, has now fully grown into her leadership role in the Community. She and Jake are committed life partners and intend to start a family in the near future. Once again the group receives instruction to move their location, this time to the summit of the Caldera. During their trek, they encounter a stranger named Adam who reveals that other people live in the Wilderness, members of a secret group called the Mavericks who escaped the City. Later, Glen, whose physical health has been slowly deteriorating for years, is fatally injured climbing the mountain.

When they finally reach the top of the mountain, several Rangers appear to inform them abruptly that the study has concluded and that they must all return immediately to the City. Many of the Community members run, attempting to evade the Ranger roundup and remain in the Wilderness. Bea pleads with Agnes to go with her to the Private Lands—a plan she had secretly set up with her Ranger ally—but Agnes refuses. Bea and Agnes split apart, never to see each other again.

Agnes remains on the run from the Rangers for three years. She finds a young child in the forest, a girl named Fernanda, and takes her under her wing. When they are finally found, they are moved to a resettlement complex on the outskirts of the City. Agnes never sees any of the Community members again, but starts a new family with Fern, raising her as her daughter. In their City home, Agnes decorates Fern’s room like the Wilderness and tells her stories of life there, hoping that Fern never forgets the nature that brought them together.