The novel opens with the cellist, sitting in his window and thinking about the ways his beloved city of Sarajevo is affected by the war. He thinks of a piece of music called Albinoni’s Adagio, but lately he has not wanted to play it as much. As the cellist looks out of the window, a mortar hits the market near the cellist’s house, killing people waiting in line to get bread. The cellist takes his instrument and goes outside, determined to play the Adagio for 22 days, the same number of people killed in the blast.
After the cellist’s chapter, Galloway interweaves three characters’ stories; for this summary, each of their full arcs will be looked at.
The second chapter introduces a woman named Arrow who works for the Sarajevo militia and who is a brilliantly effective sniper. Despite having the power to kill, Arrow avoids shooting civilians and focuses instead on other soldiers. Arrow admits that her real name is different but that she chose to be called Arrow because she grew to distance herself from her old life and to realize that she is not the person she once was.
Arrow returns to her commander, Nermin Filipovic, where she is congratulated for her bravery and for her accomplishments. He tells her he has a new assignment for her, and takes Arrow to the place where she sees the cellist playing. Arrow listens to him play and then watches him retreat back into the building where he was living. Nermin tells her that her new mission is to protect the cellist, who has achieved global attention. The commander believes that the men on the hills laying siege to the city will want to kill the cellist to send a message, and he feels that it is their duty to protect him and to make sure that he survives.
The next day, Arrow gets ready to protect the cellist. She finds a perfect spot in an abandoned apartment and is careful not to miss any movement in the apartment where a sniper could hide. At one point, she spots movement in one of the windows but nothing happens. Even though no one shoots at the cellist, Arrow feels as if she was missing something. There probably was a sniper there but he did not take a shot, and this is confusing.
The next day, Arrow takes back her place but midway through the cellist’s performance, she realizes she has been seen and falls back when someone shoots at her. However, no one shoots at the cellist and he continues his performance uninterrupted. The next day, Arrow spots the sniper but instead of shooting at the cellist, he seems to enjoy the music, staying put and with his eyes closed. This gives her a moment’s pause and she does not want to kill him but knows she has to. When the piece ends, Arrow shoots the sniper in the head, killing him.
Arrow reports back to her superior, telling him that the sniper was killed. He is pleased but also disturbed, and tells her that she has attracted attention and the men defending the city might also come after her for her skills. Nermin says he knows he is going to be relieved of his command as well, for he does not want to work for the corrupt people in the city. After Arrow leaves the building, the building explodes and Arrow knows that Nermin died in the explosion.
In the morning, men come for Arrow and take her to Colonel Edin Karaman, who informs her that from that day forward, she will work for him. When Arrow insists that she must continue to protect the cellist, the Colonel tells her that she has bigger things to do and that from that day forward she will have to obey his orders.
Arrow is then taken to a tall building and given to a man named Hasan. She is told that she must shoot the person Hasan chooses and even though she does not agree with this, she knows that she must obey. At the 14th floor, Arrow is told to shoot a man who looks like a civilian. Arrow refuses, even though she knows that she will be seen as a traitor. She leaves the building in a hurry.
In the last chapter, the narrator returns to Arrow. She is sitting in her own apartment, a day after the cellist played for the last time. Feeling as if she had done her job and knowing she cannot live as a fugitive, Arrow decides to let herself be caught. Just as the soldiers approach the door, Arrow thinks of the ways she could have been happy if the war did not exist and whispers her real name, Alisa.
The second character is Kenan, a 40-year-old man living in the city together with his wife Amila and their children. Kenan prepares to go to the other side of the city to bring water back to his family and also for his elderly neighbor, Mrs. Ristovski. Even though he knows that he could be killed at any moment, Kenan exits the apartment and goes to get water.
Kenan walks on the streets littered with trash and lined with destroyed buildings. Kenan meets one of his old friends, Ismet, who decided to join the army, and Kenan realizes that if the fighting continues, he will most likely be forced to join the army as well. Kenan eventually arrives at another bridge and after seeing a couple passing safety, he decides to go as well. After he passes the bridge, he sees the brewery from where he will fill his water bottles. While waiting in line, a shell drops near him and many people are wounded or killed. Kenan is in shock and he decides to return slowly home. When a second shell hits near him, Kenan drops his neighbor’s water bottles and runs towards his home.
Before returning home, Kenan meets with Ismet and then, instead of going home, follows the sound of music until he reaches the market where the cellist is playing. Kenan listens to him and imagines a better time when he will be able to rebuild the city he loves. With this thought in mind, he returns to retrieve the bottles of water he left behind.
A few days later, Kenan gets ready for another trip to the brewery but this time he also looks forward to hearing the cellist play one last time. The day starts well as the couple is happy to have electricity for a brief period of time and before leaving, Kenan kisses his wife and promises to come back safely.
The third character is a man named Dragan. He is among the few in the city who still have a job, and since it is at a bakery it means that he and his family (his brother-in-law and sister-in-law) do not have to be hungry. Dragan feels alone because he sent his wife and children to Italy while he chose to stay in the country.
Every day, Dragan must take a dangerous road to the bakery. Every day, he has to wait just for the right moment to pass an important intersection in the city, knowing that he could be shot at any moment. Just before his eyes, a couple tries to pass but snipers begin to shoot at them. The couple survives and the rest of the bystanders are now aware of the fact that the intersection is targeted by snipers.
While some brave people chose to cross the intersection, Dragan stays behind and waits. Dragan meets Emina, a woman he and his wife used to be friends with. Emina tells Dragan that her husband joined the army. The two continue to talk, reminiscing about the times when the world was much safer and when they enjoyed living. When Dragan gets ready to cross, he hears a bullet and feels it near his head. He is not shot, however, and returns to safety, where he is met by Emina who hugs him and jokes with him to calm him down.
They wait together for a time. Emina tells Dragan that she still has hope and that her hope is renewed by the man sitting in the market where 22 people died, playing every day at his cello. Emina tells Dragan that she goes every day to listen to him.
Emina and Dragan wait until everyone else passes the intersection safely. They decide to pass as well but the sniper begins shooting at them. A man is hit in the stomach and Emina is hit in her arm; Dragan runs back to where he started. When Dragan turns around to look at the man hit in the stomach, another bullet hits him in the head, killing him. A young man helps pull Emina’s body to safety.
An ambulance appears shortly and Emina is taken to the hospital while Dragan remains. While there, Dragan sees a foreign reporter getting ready to film the body lying in the street. Dragan feels as if the man should be treated with more respect so he runs to the body and drags it away from the bullets fired by the sniper. Before leaving the body, Dragan puts the hat back on the man’s face and he covers the body of the dead man with the coat left behind by Emina. A few days later, Dragan is once more at the intersection where only days before Emina was shot. Despite the danger, Dragan refuses to run, choosing instead to walk slowly.
