The novel is narrated in first person by numerous narrators and divided into three parts. The first section, 'Mexicans Lost in Mexico', is told by 17-year-old aspiring poet, Juan Garc�a Madero. It centers on his admittance to a roving gang of poets who refer to themselves as the Visceral Realists. He drops out of university and travels around Mexico City, becoming increasingly involved with the adherents of Visceral Realism, although he remains uncertain about Visceral Realism.


The book's second section, 'The Savage Detectives,' comprises nearly two-thirds of the novel's total length. The section is a polyphonic narrative which features more than forty narrators and spans twenty years, from 1976 to 1996. It consists of interviews with a variety of characters from locations around North America, Europe, and the Middle East, all of whom have come into contact with the founding leaders of the Visceral Realists, Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano. Each narrator has his or her own opinion of the two, although the consensus is that they are drifters and literary elitists whose behavior often leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of those they meet. We learn that the two spent some years in Europe, frequenting bars and camp sites, and generally living a bohemian lifestyle. Lima, the more introverted of the two, serves a short sentence in an Israeli prison, while Belano challenges a literary critic to an absurd sword fight on a Spanish beach.


The third section of the book, 'The Deserts of Sonora', is again narrated by Juan Garc�a Madero, now in the Sonora Desert with Lima, Belano and a prostitute named Lupe. The section involves the 'Savage Detectives' closing in on the elusive poet and the movement's founder Ces�rea Tinajero, while being chased by a pimp named Alberto and a corrupt Mexican police officer.