The outset of the novel is paradoxically the end: it opens with the funeral of the unnamed protagonist (Everyman), whose life gradually unfolds through analepsis (flash-backs) on the man's past.
It retraces his first encounter with mortality as a child, living in Newark with his parents and older brother, Howie, when a hernia causes hospitalization. The novella then transitions to Everyman's thirties in which he is divorced already with two sons. His father is dying, and the man believes his own oncoming illness is derived from his grief, but his appendix is soon realized to be the cause.
He begins to resent his brother, who, a successful currency trader, is in considerably better health than he, who goes into surgery. Everyman remarries to a woman called Phoebe, the only woman he ever loved, with whom he has a daughter named Nancy.
He proceeds to have multiple affairs, one of whom he leaves Phoebe for.
After divorcing his third wife, a Danish model, he moves away from NYC to a retirement home in which he pursues his passion of painting, setting up classes for the other residents. He makes a good friend, Millicent, who takes her own life by overdosing on pain medication, causing him to cancel the classes.
After reflecting on his adulterous past, the protagonist returns to New York , hearing that his ex-wife (Phoebe) and his old colleagues, are dying. Still bitter of his brother's health, he is diagnosed with further blocked arteries.
Before surgery, he desires to speak to Nancy (his daughter) and Howie, but does not. He then grimly looks death in the face by visiting his parents' graves, meeting a grave digger.
The man attends his surgery with a positive outlook, but dies in the process.
