Ghostwritten is the product of a number of influences, particularly from East Asian culture and superstition, as well as real events remodelled for plot purposes (e.g. the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway).

There are also hints and references to other works, most prominently from Isaac Asimov and the Three Laws of Robotics towards the end of the book, as well as Wild Swans by Jung Chang and The Music of Chance by Paul Auster.

This first chapter follows Quasar, a member of a millenarianist doomsday cult, attempting to evade capture in Okinawa after releasing nerve agents into a Tokyo subway train.

The next chapter focuses on Satoru, a young Filipino-Japanese record shop worker in downtown Tokyo with a deep love for jazz music.

Satoru struggles to balance his complicated family life as an orphan, musical ambitions, societal pressure to begin a career, and his infatuation with Tomoyo, a new customer in the shop.

Throughout her life, she and the shack encounter Chinese warlords, Japanese soldiers, Red Guards, reformists, and a tree she believes can speak to her.

Through the course of a day in London, Marco interacts with characters referenced in previous chapters and considers the role chance plays in his non-committal lifestyle.

In the eighth chapter, Mo Muntervary has resigned her position as a physicist studying quantum cognition after realizing the research was being used to develop weapons for the United States government.

Military agents pursue her as she flees through London, Hong Kong, Mongolia, and finally her home in Clear Island, Ireland, where the inhabitants decide to defend her.

[4] Characters mentioned in this book would appear in subsequent Mitchell novels, making Ghostwritten the initial entry in what would later become a heavily interconnected universe of stories.