The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Ma, Ling. Bliss Montage. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.

Ling Ma's Bliss Montage is a collection of eight short stories. Each short story is written from a distinct point of view and employs a unique narrative form. The following summary uses the present tense and relies upon a streamlined, linear mode of explanation.

In "Los Angeles," the unnamed first person narrator lives in a large house in Los Angeles, California. The house is divided into three wings. The narrator and the Husband live in one wing. Their two children and their au pairs live in the second wing. The narrator's 100 ex-boyfriends live in the third wing. Although the narrator is a wife and a mother, she takes the most pleasure in spending time with her exes. As all of the exes start to move out and start new lives, the narrator begins to realize her reason for staying so attached to her former romantic partners.

In "Oranges," the unnamed first person narrator sees her abusive ex-boyfriend Adam exiting a building across the street from her office one evening. Because she has recently heard that Adam is being charged for various assaults and acts of domestic violence, she decides to follow him. As she trails him from place to place throughout the city, the narrator reflects on their relationship. She ends up at the apartment where Adam lives with his current girlfriend, Beth, who invites the narrator in for dinner. After revealing the truth about Adam's history of abuse to Beth, the narrator realizes what she has wanted from this encounter.

In "G," on the night before Beatrice leaves New York for California, she visits her best friend Bonnie. Although it has been years since she has taken the fictional drug G, Beatrice agrees to do it with Bonnie for old time's sake. Once the drug takes effect, the friends' bodies disappear and they wander around the city. By the end of the night, Beatrice is panicking because the drug is not wearing off. She then realizes that Bonnie has given her an excessively large dose and she is on the verge of disappearing forever. Bonnie assumes her identity.

In "Yeti Lovemaking," one night not long after she and her ex break up, the unnamed first person narrator meets a man at a bar. He buys her a drink and invites her back to his apartment. Moments after arriving, the narrator realizes the man is in fact a yeti. Months later, the narrator convinces herself that making love with the yeti has summoned her ex back into her life.

In "Returning," the first person, unnamed narrator travels to Garboza with her husband, Peter. She wakes up on the plane, shocked to discover that Peter has abandoned her. While waiting in the airport for him to resurface, the narrator reflects on her recent past. She and Peter have been distant of late. Peter has been consumed with work, and the narrator has been spending all of her time with her friend, Y, with whom she has been having an affair. Once she finally finds Peter at the local Morning Festival, the narrator's perspective on intimacy, the past, and the future begins to shift.

In "Office Hours," years after graduating from college, Marie secures an associate professor position at her alma mater. At a faculty party one night, she reconnects with the Professor, a teacher with whom she was close. The Professor takes her to his former office and shows her a secret passageway inside the closet. The passageway leads to a chamber, which is in fact an alternate world. Dissatisfied with her life and unable to determine what she wants for herself, Marie decides to stay in the chamber for good at the story's end.

In "Peking Duck," the unnamed first person narrator uses her fiction writing endeavors to sort through her past. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, the narrator has historically had a hard time claiming her memories as her own. She rewrites one memory from her and her mother's shared past in order to own her version of events.

In "Tomorrow," after breaking up with her boyfriend Ben, Eve discovers she is pregnant. Her pregnancy makes her realize that she needs to change her life. She decides to take a leave of absence from work and travel back to China. Now that her parents are dead, she feels free to discover the country for herself. While there, however, she realizes that she must leave and never return. She wants to protect her baby from this place.