Narrated by Death, the story follows the young girl Liesel Meminger, living with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann in Nazi Germany during World War II. While adapting to her new home she is exposed to the horrors of the war and politics. As the political situation in Germany deteriorates, her foster parents conceal a Jewish man named Max Vandenburg. Hans develops a close relationship with Liesel, helping her learn to read and write. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing literature, Liesel begins to steal books that the politicians are seeking to destroy. She also ends up writing her own story and finds a common interest in them with Max. By collecting laundry for her foster mother she also forms a relationship with the mayor's wife Ilsa, who allows her to read books in her library.
Hans brings suspicion on his household that he might be a sympathizer with political adversaries of Germany in the war. Max leaves the Hubermanns' home soon after out of fear that the suspicion could endanger him or the family, but eventually returns. Bombs fall on Liesel's street, killing her friends, family and neighbors. Liesel is the sole survivor due to working on her manuscript in the basement at the time of the raid.
Many years later (what Death calls "just yesterday") Liesel dies from old age in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia with a family and many friends. She has never forgotten Hans, Rosa, Max, her friend Rudy or her brother. When Death collects Liesel's soul he gives her the manuscript she lost in the bombing. She asks him if he read it and understood it, but Death is unable to understand the duality of humanity. Death's last words for Liesel (and possibly the reader) are "I am haunted by humans."
