The novel is split into two storylines. The first follows Snowman’s endeavors after the human population of Earth has been wiped out by a massive deadly plague, when all that apparently remains are the Crakers (a genetically manipulated group of beings who are similar to but not the same as humans and survive easily in this environment) and Snowman himself, who watches over the Crakers and struggles himself to survive. The second storyline follows Jimmy (this was Snowman’s name before the plague hit) and describes how the Crakers, the plague, and Snowman’s lonely existence came to be.
The novel opens with Snowman going through his daily routine. He eats some of the food he’s scavenged and stored, hears voices from the past in his head, and interacts with the Crakers, who ask him to tell stories from the past. Snowman invents for them a mythology in which someone called Crake is their creator and god, and Oryx, a mysterious woman who appears to Snowman’s hallucinating mind in his loneliest moments, is their caregiver and creator of all animal life.
