John Barth's The Floating Opera is a humorous work of existential fiction. Published in 1957, it is comparable to the work of philosophers like Albert Camus, who were becoming widely read at the time.

The story begins with the narrator and protagonist, Todd Andrews, introducing himself to his readers and explaining how he will tell his story. He wants to slowly feed his readers background information rather than drop them in the middle of the plot.

The book's title, he explains, is directly related to the setting in which the book's climax occurs. It is also reflective of how he wants his story to be read. Todd compares his way of storytelling to a "floating opera" he saw on a river. While an opera goes on aboard the boat, those along the banks of the river only catch pieces of the plot as the boat floats past them and must come to their conclusions with the scenes they put together.

The main events of Todd's story take place many years before his telling of it. The date is either June 21 or 22 of 1937. Todd isn't sure, but he is also unwilling to verify the exact date, the day he "changed [his] mind."

On this day in June, Todd wakes up in the hotel room he's lived in for years with an idea of paramount spontaneity: today is the day he will end his life. Suicide excites Todd not because his life is miserable but because he is indifferent to it. Death would merely be a change in his routine.

Not wanting his death to be attributed to any particular cause, Todd is careful to live the rest of his day as if it were any other as if he hadn't just experienced a life-altering epiphany. Thus, Todd leaves his room—and his mistress, Jane Mack—to attend his daily Dorchester Explorers' Club meeting. Todd talks about the pros and cons of getting old at the meeting with his elderly friends, Captain Osborn and Mister Haecker.

On his way out of the hotel, Todd pays for his lodgings. He explains that he only pays for one day at a time because it is a good reminder that his life can end anytime. To counterbalance this way of thinking, Todd works on his Inquiry—a collection of thoughts and facts that attempt to explain his father's suicide—slowly, as if he has all eternity to finish it. He does this to "begin each day with a gesture of cynicism, and close it with a gesture of faith."

Before heading to his office for his job as a lawyer, carefully preserving the day's normality, he follows all his strange but regular daily routines. For example, he doesn't miss his hour of manual labor working on his boat while wearing his suit and tie. But this day, while walking, Todd also pockets a handbill for Adam's Original and Unparallelled Floating Opera.

His time in the office is ordinary, but Todd admits he doesn't have a particular interest in law: "Winning or losing litigations is of no concern" to him. Todd only went to law school because his father wanted him to do that. And since Todd believed he would die at any moment due to a heart condition he had been diagnosed with, and he thought he might as well make his father happy for the time being.

Todd has lunch with his close friend Harrison Mack, for whom he is also working on a legal case. Todd backtracks and explains his unconventional relationship with Harrison and his wife, Jane. As it turns out, Harrison...