The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Nunez, Sigrid. What Are You Going Through. New York: Riverhead Books, 2020.

The novel takes place in the year 2017. The unnamed narrator is a middle-aged woman who works as a writer and a professor. A friend of hers has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The narrator visits the friend in the hospital where the friend is being treated. The friend is worried that her death will be long and painful. The friend was never married, but she has a daughter who is now an independent adult. The daughter was always hostile towards her mother, with no apparent cause or reason. The narrator notices that her ex-boyfriend—a renowned writer and journalist—is scheduled to give a public lecture at a nearby university. She attends the lecture. In the lecture, the ex asserts that climate change has progressed beyond reversibility, and that humanity will be wiped out within the next century.

The narrator then returns home and goes to the gym that she regularly attends. She is acquainted with another woman who regularly attends. The woman is distraught that, as she approaches middle-age, her body is growing stouter. The narrator also has some anxieties about being an aging woman in a misogynistic society. She worries that she will become increasingly shunned—socially, artistically, and professionally—as she grows older.

The narrator eventually goes to visit her friend in the hospital again. The narrator stays in a house she found on Airbnb. She finds a thriller novel in the house and begins reading it. The homeowner has a pet cat. One night, the cat approaches the narrator and speaks. The cat details the events of its own life thus far. The narrator then digresses in narration to discuss her neighbor, an 86-year-old woman who lives alone. The narrator occasionally visits the woman to keep her company, although she finds the woman to be generally unpleasant.

Eventually, the friend checks out of the hospital, since treatment does not appear to be effective in her case. The friend decides to kill herself in order to avoid a long and painful death. The narrator tries to talk her out of it, but the friend remains steadfast. The narrator eventually agrees to accompany the friend to a rental house, which is where the friend plans to kill herself by overdosing on pills. During their days at the rental home, they pass the time by conversing and by pursuing various leisure activities. One day, the narrator attends a gym near the rental house. She mentions her friend’s tragic situation while talking to a personal trainer, and the trainer offers his sincere sympathy. On a another day, the narrator meets with her ex-boyfriend in a coffee shop, as he is in town to give a lecture. They discuss the ex-boyfriend’s bleak beliefs about humanity’s future.

Eventually the narrator and the friend have to leave the rental house after the friend accidentally floods part of it by overfilling a bathtub. The narrator proceeds to temporarily live with the friend in the friend’s apartment. The friend’s health gradually declines, and the friend eventually dies. The narrator attempts to write about the friend’s death, and about witnessing the friend's death. However, the narrator ultimately gives up on attempting to recount these experiences in writing. The narrator feels that written words cannot adequately express these experiences.