Chapter summaries (1-15)

Chapter 1

The chapter opens with the narrator and Tyler Durden standing on the rooftop of a tall building, with Tyler pushing a gun into the narrator’s mouth while telling him that he is not really going to die. On the floors below, someone is pushing heavy furniture out of the windows and letting it crash into the streets. We also learn that the building has been rigged with explosives and will blow up in 10 minutes. 

While the narrator observes these events, he also shares some details about the story leading up to this moment, and mentions a person named Marla Singer whom both Tyler and the narrator seems to have a history with. As the chapter ends, there are only three minutes left until the explosion, and the narrator announces that he remembers everything. This signals that the upcoming chapters will be a flashback of the events leading up to the dramatic situation on the rooftop. 

Chapter 2

We learn about the narrator’s habit of going to support groups for illnesses he does not have. It is revealed that he went to the doctor two years earlier to find a cure for his insomnia. The doctor did not offer real help, but told him to visit support groups to learn about real suffering. The narrator found that being at the support groups and pretending to be sick helped him cry, and crying helped him sleep. He has grown especially attached to a man at the testicular cancer support group called Big Bob, and hugging Bob always helps the narrator cry. 

However, the narrator has recently discovered another faker at the support groups named Marla Singer, and...