Observing Orlando from above, Margo tells Quentin that it is a “paper town,” full of superficial people. Halfway through the night, Margo takes Quentin to the twenty-fifth floor of a downtown office building. They play elaborate pranks on the people who have done them wrong. Quentin sneaks out of the house and spends the night with Margo, driving across Orlando and having adventures.

She has discovered that her boyfriend, Jase, has been cheating on her with one of her best friends, Becca, and has resolved to spend the night taking revenge. Without warning, one night in the beginning of May, Margo appears outside Quentin’s bedroom window telling him she needs his help. Quentin is a mild-mannered nerd, though he has excellent friends, Radar and Ben. Margo is glamorous and popular, famous amongst her peers for her incredible adventures and elaborate schemes. Still, Quentin admires Margo from afar, convinced he is madly in love with her. Nine years later, as they prepare to finish their senior year at Winter Park High School, Margo and Quentin’s friendship has long since fizzled out. He goes on to recount an experience he and Margo had when they were nine years old: riding their bicycle together one morning, they discover the body of a man named Robert Joyner, who has committed suicide, lying beneath a tree. He tells his reader that his miracle was living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman in Jefferson Park, their subdivision of Orlando, Florida. Quentin Jacobsen begins his story by speculating that one miracle-one incredible, unlikely thing - will happen to every person during their lifetime.

Paper towns book genre