Eleanor Oliphant, the novel's protagonist and narrator, lives in Glasgow, Scotland, and works as a finance clerk for a graphic design company.

Not considering that she has a problem, Eleanor repeatedly describes herself as "absolutely fine", and even when obvious moments of awkwardness arise in her interactions with others, she tends to blame the other person's "underdeveloped social skills".

Eleanor develops a crush on Johnnie Lomond, lead singer in a local band, having won tickets to a concert in a work raffle.

In anticipation of meeting him, she begins an unprecedented regime of personal grooming: she has a bikini wax, and later a manicure and haircut, buys new clothes, and visits a Bobbi Brown beauty store for makeup advice.

They are subsequently drawn into a series of encounters with Sammy and his grateful family, and in the process an embryonic friendship grows between Eleanor and Raymond.

Eleanor attends another long-anticipated Johnnie Lomond concert, certain that this is the moment at which they will meet, and the pieces of her life will start to fall into place.

She returns to her flat in despair, retreating into an intense three-day drinking binge and assembling materials for a suicide attempt – a hoard of painkillers; a bread knife; and a bottle of drain cleaner.

Gradually, with the help of both the counsellor and Raymond, she ends her weekly contact with her mother, and her full childhood story emerges, including details that she had suppressed.

I was really struck by that because I hadn't really heard of a young person's perspective on it before and it was very contrary to the media portrayal of people in their twenties often that life is just one big, long party – nights out, very social.

[9][10] Jenny Colgan, reviewing for The Guardian, described the novel as "a narrative full of quiet warmth and deep and unspoken sadness" with a "wonderful, joyful" ultimate message.

[17] Publishers Weekly described McCarron's performance as "award-worthy", and her portrayal of Eleanor as "by turns comical in her obliviousness to basic things and utterly heartbreaking in discussing her past".