The novel is structured around Anna's four notebooks each serving as a narrative vehicle for different aspects of Anna’s life.

The Black Notebook: This focuses on Anna’s experiences in Africa during World War II, where she begins her career as a writer and navigates her relationships, particularly her affair with a married man. The notebook reflects on the themes of colonialism and racial tensions.

The Red Notebook: This section delves into Anna’s political life, specifically her involvement with the Communist Party. It captures her disillusionment with the movement and the ideological struggles she faces.

The Yellow Notebook: This is a novel within the novel, recounting the story of Ella, a writer and single mother who mirrors Anna’s own experiences with love, betrayal, and creative challenges.

The Blue Notebook: This diary-like section details Anna’s attempts to write her own narrative, dealing with her psychological breakdown, therapy sessions, and fragmented thoughts on her life and writing.

The Golden Notebook: Serving as the culmination of the fragmented narratives, this notebook attempts to unify the disparate parts of Anna’s identity. It represents her striving for wholeness and coherence in a fragmented world.

The novel follows Anna's struggle to unify the disparate parts of her life and identity through writing. She grapples with disillusionment from her failed marriage, relationships with married men, single parenthood, mental health issues, and the inadequacy of language to capture lived experiences. Anna's fragmented self is reflected in the novel's non-linear, collage-like structure that blurs fiction and reality.
As Anna begins writing in a single golden notebook towards the end, she starts integrating the fragmented strands of her life, signifying her journey towards psychological wholeness.