The main plot of the story concerns Jonas' training sessions as the community's Receiver of Memory, which dramatically influences his perspective on life and motivates him to alter his society permanently. Jonas lives in a seemingly perfect utopian society, which is highly-structured and founded on the concepts of Sameness. At the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas is selected to be the community's next Receiver of Memory and he has the difficult, painful job of preserving humanity's past memories. During his training sessions with the Giver, Jonas discovers the negatives of Sameness and realizes that it has terminated life's spontaneity and the citizens' independence. After Jonas discovers the truth about the term release, he refuses to return home and is motivated to flee his community. However, Jonas' plan to escape is altered when he discovers that Gabriel will be released the following morning. Jonas decides to flee the community with Gabriel and eventually travels to Elsewhere, where they discover a cozy village celebrating Christmas on a snowy night.

The main plot is that Jonas lives in a community that seems almost perfect until he is chosen to be the Receiver (of memories telling what life was like before this utopia was established). Once he is Receiver, he learns from the Giver what alternatives exist, and what's wrong with his community, until at last he steals a baby (who could be a Receiver) and runs away.