Ghostwritten has nine different narrators from nine different cities around the world. They live very different lives, dealing with different problem that are seemingly unconnected. The nine first chapters are from the nine different point of views, the last chapter bringing their stories together.
The first chapter is set in Okinawa through the eyes of a cult member who joined in a nerve gas attack in Tokyo. As the police arrive to arrest the people of the cult, Quasar, the character of the story, has to ask for help from the remaining parts of the cult and starts teaching at a school.
The second chapter is in Tokyo, with a boy that raised by his whore mother in a whore-house. He falls in love with a girl and receives a call from Quasar from the precious chapter. Next in Hong Kong, a lawyer named Neal Brose with a rocky relationship with his wife, housemaid and work are explored. When he sees the girl and the boy from the previous chapter in love, he decides to end his relationship with his wife. Climbing up a mountain for reflection, the lawyer dies and loses his belongings, beginning an investigation at his workplace.
Meanwhile in the Holy Mountains, a grandma dies as her granddaughter, the maid that had an affair with the lawyer from the last chapter, visits her. In Mongolia, a spirit raids human mind. It searches for its origin, finding that it came form a boy killed y communists. His soul nearly moved into a girl, but only his memories succeeded. His soul remains in a soldier. In the end, the soul stays in the body of a baby.
An emotional lady named Margarita Latunsky is taken by the police in Saint Petersburg, as she is a part of a paint-heist gone wrong. Though they managed to steal the painting, her boyfriend dies, and she is caught. In London, a ghostwriter proposes to his girlfriend after a fight breaks out in a casino.
The final two chapters are from Clear Island and a night train, in which a researcher runs from the U.S when discovering that her intelligence was used to build weapons and an artificial intelligence that tries saving the world as a comet moves towards earth.
The last chapter is back to the first chapter, where Quasar has just gone through the terrorist attack. He envisions parts of all the chapters the reader goes through, not understanding what reality is. The ending is left open for reader interpretation.
