Miles Halter, a teenage boy obsessed with last words, leaves his normal high school in Florida to attend Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama for his junior year. Miles' reasoning for such a change is quoted by François Rabelais's last words: "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Miles' new roommate, Chip "The Colonel" Martin, nicknames Miles "Pudge" and introduces Pudge to his friends: hip-hop emcee Takumi Hikohito and Alaska Young, a beautiful but emotionally unstable girl. Learning of Pudge's obsession with famous last words, Alaska informs him of Simón Bolívar's: "Damn it. How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" The two make a deal that if Pudge figures out what the labyrinth is and how to escape it, Alaska will find him a girlfriend. Alaska sets Pudge up with a Romanian classmate, Lara.