Chapter 1: At the beginning of the story 11-year old Jonas is trying to find the right word to describe how he feels. The word isn't exactly 'frightened', because he remembers a time in the past when he really did feel frightened. It happened when an airplane flew over him and he was ordered by a loudspeaker to go inside immediately. While Jonas is still trying to think of the best word for his feelings, he remembers his best friend Asher who is always coming late to class. Finally, he decides that the word he needs is 'apprehensive'. This means a little nervous and worried about the future. Now that it is December something very important will soon happen in Jonas's life. But we (the readers) do not yet know what it is.

At dinner time with his family everyone tells what happened during the day and how they feel about it. Lily, Jonas's 7-year old sister, talks about a visit from some other children to her playground. Jonas's father is like a doctor for new babies and young children. He speaks about a young boy who is not very well. Jonas's mother is a magistrate. She is worried about a young man who has twice broken the law. When it is Jonas's turn to say he feelings, he tells everyone that he is apprehensive about the Ceremony of Twelve, which he will soon participate in.

[In the first chapter we read of many people in Jonas's community who have been released or are in danger of being released. We don't yet know what this means exactly, but does not seem to be a good thing.]

Chapter 2: Jonas and his parents talk about the December ceremonies. His father, who is a nurturer, talks about the ceremony for the Ones. This when babies are named and given away to a family. They remember when they received Lily into their family. Jonas was a Five at that time. They then discuss the ceremony for the Twelves, which is the most important of all ceremonies. This is when the Elevens are given their assignment by the Elders. The assignment is the job that they will have for the rest of their lives. Jonas's father says how happy he was to be assigned as a Nurturer.

Jonas has no idea what assignment he will be given. But he knows that the Elders have been watching him carefully for many months to see what job he would be best at. His mother warns him that he will probably have new friends after he has been assigned. Just then Lily comes into the room wanting to be taken to bed.

Chapter 3. Jonas's father brings home a baby to look after that has pale blue eyes. Jonas eyes are also blue, which is unusual since most of the others in the community have dark eyes. Lily says she would like an assignment as birthmother, but her parents persuade her that this is not a good idea.

Jonas then thinks about the time when the loudspeaker warned him not take food away from the play area. He remembers he was throwing an apple to his friend Asher in a game of catch. It seemed to him that the apple changed in the air. This interested him so he took the apple home to examine it.

Jonas tries to forget about the incident with the apple so that he can finish his homework.

Chapter 4: Jonas rides his bike to the House of the Old, where he does his volunteer work. He goes into the bathing room, to find his friends Asher and Fiona already working there. Jonas helps an old woman called Larissa get into a bath and washes her. Larissa talks about the release of one or two old people. Jonas wants to know exactly what happens when someone is released. All Larissa can tell him is that there is a celebration for the released person, who then walks happily through a special door and is never seen again.

Chapter 5: It is breakfast time and Jonas's family tell each other their dreams. Jonas’s dream happened in the bathing room. The only people there were him and Fiona. He wanted Fiona to take her clothes off and get into the bath so he could wash her. He strongly wanted to do this. After telling his dream Jonas’s father takes Lily to school. His mother talks about Jonas’s dream which shows that his stirrings have begun. This happens to all young people of about his age. However, the stirrings must be stopped by taking a pill every day until you get old. Jonas swallows his first pill and goes off to school.

Chapter 6: Jonas’s mother is getting Lily ready for the special event in the auditorium. It is the December day when children of different ages get new duties and privileges. On this day Jonas will be told his assignment now that he is no longer a child. Jonas, Lily and their mother set off for the auditorium where they meet Jonas’s father, who is already there with the babies ready to be named. We learn that Gabriel (Gabe), who has not been not growing so well, will live for a year with Jonas’s family. If he still does not grow properly, he will have to be released.

The first ceremony is the naming ceremony for 1-year old babies. Jonas then sits through the other ceremonies for the Twos, Threes, etc. Lily is part of the ceremony of Eights; she will start volunteer work and get her first bike. Then come the ceremonies of the Nines, Tens and Elevens.

Then it is time for lunch. Jonas talks with his friend Asher about the assigning of jobs, which was decided by the committee of Elders. The Elders also decided about the names for children and the Matching of the Spouses. Jonas knows that the Elders will have thought very carefully about his own assignment.

Chapter 7: Jonas goes back into the auditorium ready for the ceremony of the Twelves. He will be the 19th child called up to the stage for his assignment. The Chief Elder gives a speech in which she says the children have been carefully observed for a long time to see what special skills they had. Jonas then sits, watching and listening, as the first children receive their assignments. His friend Asher is one of them. The Chief Elder tells the audience about problems with language and how he needed to be punished for this.

Jonas continues to watch and listen as the children receive their assignments. He wonders what his will be. Soon Fiona, child number 18, is called to the stage. Jonas will be the next. But the Chief Elder skips number 19 and calls number 20. Jonas cannot believe this and thinks at first it must be a mistake. When he realises it cannot be a mistake he feels terrible and tries to sink down in his seat.

Chapter 8: The audience claps at the end of the ceremony, but everyone feels uneasy. The Chief Elder then speaks, telling the audience that no mistake has been made. She calls Jonas onto the stage and tells him he has been selected as the Receiver of Memory. Jonas needs to be trained to replace the current Receiver, who is now very old. The Elder tells Jonas he has been chosen for his special qualities: intelligence, integrity and courage. His job will keep him apart from the other members of the community and he will suffer great pain. She tells Jonas that he will acquire a fourth important quality: wisdom.

While thinking that he cannot possibly be the right person for this very special assignment, Jonas looks at the audience. For a brief moment they change - just as the apple had changed a little while ago. Jonas feels a little happier about his assignment. The audience chant his name.

Chapter 9: As Jonas leaves the auditorium with his friend Asher, he already feels a little different from the other children. At the dinner table he asks his parents about the previous receiver. The Chief Elder said the previous receiver (a girl) had failed. Jonas’s parents say they don’t know what happened to the girl, but she was never seen again.

When Jonas is alone in his room, he starts to read the book of rules that he was given. For example, from now he is not allowed to tell his dreams, but he is allowed to tell lies. This last rule is shocking to Jonas. He wonders if all adults have been lying to him.

Chapter 10. Jonas goes to the Annex for his first day of training. He is let into a locked room containing thousands of books. An old man is in the room. He is the former receiver, who will now train Jonas to do the job he has done for many years. He tell Jonas that his job is to transfer to Jonas all the memories of the past, not only his own memories but also the memories of the whole world. Their conversation is interrupted when the Old Receiver has a memory of sliding downhill on a sled. He asks Jonas to lie down so that he can transmit to Jonas the memory of snow.

Chapter 11: The Old Receiver puts his hands on Jonas's back and gives him the memory of snow. Jonas is sitting on a sled high up on a hill. He feels exhilarated as he rushes down through the snow. When Jonas comes back to reality, the Old Receiver tells him that he (the Old Receiver) has now lost the memory of snow. He loses every memory that he gives Jonas. Snow and hills do not exist in Jonas's world and he wants to know what has happened to them. The Old Receiver tells him that they disappeared when the world went to Sameness.

Next the Old Receiver gives Jonas the memory of sunshine. This too disappeared when everything was made Same. Jonas now wants to know about the pain that he was told to expect. The Old Receiver transmits the feeling of being burned by the sun. Before he goes home, Jonas learns that he should now call the old man The Giver.

Chapter 12: It is breakfast time. Jonas has dreamed about a place beyond where he reached in the memory of sledding down the hill. At school his friends talk about their new assignments, but Jonas is not allowed to talk about his. On his way to The Giver after school he meets Fiona. As he is looking at her, her hair seems to change in some way.

He asks The Giver about this. In reply The Giver tells Jonas to remember sledding down the hill. When the memory comes to Jonas, it seems to him that the sled itself is like he remembers the apple some time ago and then Fiona's hair just before. The Giver tells him he is seeing a colour: red. Colours disappeared for all other people when they went to Sameness.

Jonas wants to know how it was when The Giver started to see beyond. The Giver does not answer; instead he gives Jonas the memory of a rainbow.

Chapter 13: Jonas is impatient because it is taking him a long time to learn the colours. He wants to know why babies like Gabe are not allowed to have and choose colours. The Giver tells him that having choice is a bad idea, because people may choose the wrong things. Jonas agrees. But later he feels angry about this and tries to give his friends memories of colours. This does not succeed.

One day The Giver transmits the memory of hunters cutting up a dead elephant. He tries to give the memory of elephants to his sister Lily, but he fails.

Later Jonas asks The Giver if he has a spouse. The Giver replies that he has, but she lives away with the Childless Adults. Jonas will be allowed to have a spouse, but he will not be allowed to talk about his work with her. The Giver then speaks about the previous Receiver, 10 years before, who failed and was released. This was a hard time for the community, because they received all the bad memories that the failed receiver was supposed to keep. The Giver tells Jonas that Jonas's teachers know facts but are ignorant without memories.

Some days when Jonas arrives at the Annex The Giver is in pain and sends him away. Jonas uses his free time to practise remembering. He wonders if there is a place Elsewhere.

One day Jonas asks about pain. The Giver agrees it is time to transmit this memory to Jonas, and starts by telling him to remember sledding on the hill.

Chapter 14: In his memory Jonas is racing down the hill, but this time on ice, not on snow. He falls off and breaks his leg. The pain is terrible. When he comes back to reality, the memory is still strong and he asks for pain-relief. The Giver refuses. At home his parents realise that something is wrong, but Jonas is not allowed to tell them.

Every day from now Jonas's training includes the memory of pain. One day Jonas receives the terrible pain of hunger. The Giver tells him that this is the reason why families are not allowed to have more than 2 children. In the distant past there was not enough food for all the people and many of them starved.

Jonas wants to know why the painful memories cannot be shared by all the people. The Giver says that this against the rules that have existed for a very long time - from 'back and back and back'.

At home Gabriel is growing well, but still sleeps very badly. It is not yet clear if he will have to be released or not. Jonas's father talks about another child who is to be released, and he (Jonas's father) is the one who has to do it. Jonas wonders where the released child will go and who will look after it. He suggests that Gabe sleep in his room that night.

Gabe sleeps well at first, but then he wakes up. Jonas pats Gabriel gently and suddenly realises that he has given him a peaceful memory (about sailing on a lake). When Gabriel later awakes again, Jonas deliberately gives him a calming memory. He decides he should not tell The Giver that he (Jonas) now has the power of giving.

Chapter 15: When Jonas arrives at the Annex, The Giver is in pain. He wants Jonas to take some of the pain away. The memory Jonas receives is of a battleground. He sees a boy who is dying and asking for water. For a long time Jonas is given the terrible sights, sounds and smells of war. When he comes back to reality, The Giver asks for forgiveness.

Chapter 16: After the painful memories of war, The Giver gives Jonas some pleasant memories. The Giver gives Jonas his own favourite memory, which is about a family Christmas, with presents, warm-coloured lights, and grandparents. Jonas learns that the feeling he has when he watches the scene is "love". He hasn't felt this before. However, when Jonas asks his parents if they love him, they tell him that "love" is not an exact word, and should not be used.

That night, Jonas whispers to the baby Gabe that things could be better in the community: there could be colour, and grandparents, and love. Jonas feels that he can start being different from everyone else. He doesn't take his anti-Stirrings pill in the morning.

Chapter 17: It is four weeks later. There is a surprise holiday, and no school. Jonas can now see colours all the time. Jonas also knows that he has felt deeper, stronger feelings than the feelings other people often talk about. For example, when he sees Asher and his friends enjoying playing at war, he feels very bad about it. Unlike his friends, Jonas has had a painful memory of how terrible real war is. This scene is also unpleasant for Jonas because Asher and Fiona can feel only friendship for him, but he can now feel love for them.

At home, Jonas's father talks about twins being born the next day, and says that the smaller one will be released. He tells Jonas that someone comes to take the released twin away to Elsewhere.

Chapter 18: Jonas asks The Giver about the person who had been chosen to be the next Receiver ten years before. The Giver finds talking about her painful. He says her name was Rosemary. He gave her memories for five weeks, including painful memories. These painful memories were not about body pain (like Jonas had been given) but memories of loneliness, being poor, hungry, and very frightened. After five weeks, Rosemary had asked to be released.

When she had been released, Rosemary's memories had got out to the community. This had caused a lot of suffering for the people. The Giver warns Jonas to stay away from the river, in case he drowns and the same thing happens.

Jonas has now been receiving memories for a year.

Chapter 19: Jonas tells The Giver that he would like to see the release of the twin his father had talked about, but he thinks he isn't allowed to. The Giver tells him that because Jonas is the Receiver, he can ask for whatever he wants. The Receiver thinks it important that Jonas sees the release.

The Giver then shows Jonas a video of his father releasing the smaller of the two twins earlier that day. His father had injected a liquid into the baby's head. Jonas realises from his memories that his father has killed the baby. The baby is put in a simple box and thrown into a hole in the wall where the trash is put.

The Giver tells Jonas he had watched Rosemary inject herself when she had asked for Release. Jonas feels a terrible pain as if he is being torn in two inside himself.

Chapter 20: Jonas is so angry and pained by what he learned about Release, that he shouts and cries. The Giver says that Jonas can stay with him that night. The Giver explains that when people obey instructions and release someone, it's because they have no real feelings, and don't know any other way.

The Giver makes a plan for Jonas. In two weeks it will be the December ceremonies. In the middle of the night, The Giver will drive Jonas to the other side of the river, and Jonas can then find his way to Elsewhere. The Giver will tell the community that Jonas has drowned. The Giver won't go with Jonas. The people will be so confused when they hear that they don't have a Receiver that he will need to stay and help them.

The Giver offers to give Jonas the ability to hear music. Jonas says The Giver needs to keep that himself, because his life will be very difficult after Jonas has gone. The Giver says that he wants to be with his daughter. He tells Jonas that his daughter was Rosemary.

Chapter 21: Jonas has to escape the next night, instead of two weeks after. Back home, at the evening meal, his father had told the family that Gabe would be released the next day because he had not slept properly at the Nurturing Centre. So Jonas steals his father's bike. The bike has a baby seat in which he puts Gabe. They cross the bridge and cycle away from the community, towards Elsewhere.

They travel at night and sleep during the day. When search-planes come after them, Jonas gives Gabe memories of snow to confuse the planes' warmth-finding technology.

Chapter 22: Jonas continues to cycle with Gabe to find Elsewhere. He falls off the bike and hurts his ankle. They start to travel during daytime, and see birds and a deer. Jonas manages to catch some fish, but they are nearly starving. It starts to rain. They are cold and wet, and Gabriel is crying. Jonas thinks that he cannot save Gabriel from death.

Chapter 23: Jonas feels that Elsewhere is near, but he has little hope that they will reach it. It is cold and snowy. Jonas ties Gabe to his chest to warm him and gives him memories of sunshine, but the memories fade quickly. The bike cannot move in the snow, so Jonas struggles on foot up a steep hill.

Suddenly he is filled with joy. He tells Gabe that they're almost there and finds the sled (sledge). Somehow he knew that the sled would be waiting for them at the top of the hill. Jonas sits on the sled, holding Gabe, and they slide down the hill toward Elsewhere. He sees lights and Christmas trees and families.

As the two children speed downward, Jonas is sure the families are waiting to welcome him and Gabe. He thinks he hears music for the first time.