Krakauer describes the events leading up to his eventual decision to participate in an Everest expedition in May 1996, despite having mostly given up mountain climbing years before. Krakauer was a journalist for the adventure magazine Outside, and initially his intention to climb Everest had been purely professional. He had planned to climb only as far as the mountain's base camp, and to report on the commercialization of the mountain. However, the idea of going to Everest reawakened his childhood desire to climb the mountain. Krakauer asked his editor to put off publishing the story for a year so that he could train for a climb to the summit.
From there, the book moves between describing events that took place on the mountain, and the unfolding tragedy, which occurs during the push to the summit. (The 1996 expedition season saw eight recorded deaths, including that of Krakauer's guide, Rob Hall. It also saw the third-highest recorded number of deaths on the mountain in a single day. The April 2015 Nepal earthquake had caused the most, at 21.) Krakauer concludes that essential safety methods that had been adopted over the years by experienced guides on Everest were sometimes compromised by the competition between rival guiding agencies to get their respective clients to the summit.
