The City of Ember (2003) is the first novel in Jeanne DuPrau’s highly-esteemed middle grade science fiction series of the same name. Readers meet the 12-year-old protagonists Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, newly assigned members of the city of Ember’s working class. In their new jobs as messenger and Pipeworks laborer, Lina and Doon begin to grasp the disturbing truth about their doomed city—and discover the chance to leave it for good. The novel examines the complexity of secrets, selfishness versus selflessness, and the importance of learning and curiosity.

DuPrau received several awards for The City of Ember, including the 2003 Kirkus Editor’s Choice award and the 2006 Mark Twain Award, and the novel was adapted for film in 2008. DuPrau is also the author of two other novels, several non-fiction books including a memoir, and short stories. This guide references the 2003 Random House edition of The City of Ember.

Plot Summary

A brief prologue describes how anonymous Builders constructed the city of Ember for arriving inhabitants who would need to live there for at least two centuries. It is implied that it will be unsafe to leave the city before that much time has passed; to keep citizens safe, the only copy of instructions for leaving Ember will be placed in a locked box. The chief builder tells the assistant builder that each successive mayor of Ember will guard the lockbox without knowing its contents until the lock’s timer opens it automatically.

Generations of inhabitants live in supposed peace in Ember. Each mayor conveys the importance of the secret box to the next. The seventh mayor, however, attempts to open the lockbox before its time; when he fails, he hides the box, then dies before revealing its existence to the next mayor.

The novel’s present time narrative begins in the Ember year 241. It is Assignment Day for a new group of graduates from Ember’s school, and Mayor Cole will lead the random drawing that reveals each child’s job assignment in the workforce of Ember. The 12-year-old Lina Mayfleet wants desperately to become a messenger. Messengers run the length and breadth of Ember every day, delivering messages from person to person, as no other communication device exists. Lina pulls the job of Pipeworks laborer instead.

The Pipeworks are a series of wet, dangerous tunnels and pipes far under Ember that usher water from the fierce underground river to homes and buildings. The generator that powers all of Ember is also in the Pipeworks; this generator supplies power and light. Light is one of Ember’s most important resources, as without electrical lights, the city is in complete darkness all hours of the day and night. Because no one has figured out how to make light portable, no one can leave the city, as it is surrounded by terrifying darkness.

Doon Harrow, Lina’s classmate, is assigned to be a messenger, but he is disgusted about his chosen role and claims in front of Mayor Cole that Ember is in danger: Blackouts and shortages are clear signs that someone needs to take action. Mayor Cole thinks Doon is just making trouble. After dismissal, Doon trades jobs with Lina, who is thrilled to be a messenger after all.

Lina loves her new job but begins to notice that Doon’s fears about shortages seem to be true. She sees how very old and reused everything is in Ember, and she hears rumors that the city is running low on light bulbs and vitamins. Doon is able to see the generator in his new Pipeworks job, but he quickly realizes he will not be able to fix it because no one knows how it really works.

One day Lina’s grandmother, her guardian since the death of her parents, becomes upset and confused. She digs through a closet looking for a box that she recalls her grandfather, the seventh mayor of Ember, muttering about on his deathbed. He claimed the box was very important. In the closet mess, Lina sees a box with a strange lock already unlocked and open. Her baby sister Poppy chewed up some of the paper inside, but Lina can tell that the document included a numbered list of instructions.

When their grandmother dies, Lina and Poppy move in with Mrs. Murdo, a neighbor. Lina shows the document to a few people, but no one thinks it is important except Doon. Together Lina and Doon carefully reconstruct the message and discover instructions for leaving the city. The original Builders always intended for the people of Ember to leave, and the city was not built to last indefinitely. To their shock, they also find out that Mayor Cole has a secret room in the Pipeworks where he hordes stolen food and supplies all to himself. When Lina and Doon attempt to reveal his wicked deeds, the city guards accuse them of lying and intend to put them in the Prison Room. Though they planned to share the news of the Instructions with all of Ember at the great celebratory annual Singing, they now realize they must flee the city as the Instructions indicate, leaving a note for all to follow.

In the rush to avoid the guards, Lina forgets to deliver the note. She, Poppy, and Doon leave the city by way of the river, then make a long climb up a path enclosed by rocky walls. They are shocked to learn in a discovered journal, written by one of the first inhabitants of Ember, that the Builders constructed the underground city to keep a new generation safely ignorant of the terrible, damaged world far above. When Lina and Doon emerge from the caves with Poppy, they experience the real outside for the first time. The night sky and moon are marvels to them, as is the sun when it rises. Looking for a way back in order to lead the others out, they find a crevice in the hillside high above Ember. Seeing their city’s tiny streets and lights far below makes it clear that Ember is actually built in a cavernous hole in the ground. They throw down the note, weighted, to the streets below.

In the last paragraph of the story, Mrs. Murdo finds the note and is about to open it.