Cloud Atlas: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

1. On a balcony in California where disco music is blaring from next door, the 63-year-old Rufus Sixsmith consider what would happen if jumped over the ledge and fell to the sidewalk. A young woman comes out to the balcony at the party next door. Rufus thinks, jokingly, that maybe he and the woman should make a suicide pact—although he doesn’t actually plan to jump, he knows there are dangerous men out there like Napier and Grimaldi who want him dead. He’s currently in hiding and gets scared when the wind slams the balcony door shut because it sounds like a gunshot. Rufus goes back inside to watch M*A*S*H*.

2. The 26-year-old Luisa Rey hears a noise from the balcony next door. She feels nauseous from eating greasy chicken. A man in leather pants comes out and starts talking to her about his guru. He offers to give her weed and write a song about her for his next album. Luisa, who is a magazine gossip columnist, turns the man down.

3. As Luisa goes to take the elevator, Rufus holds the door for her with his cane. As they go down, the power suddenly cuts out, and they’re stuck. 4. An hour later, Rufus tells Luisa that he used to read her father’s (Lester Rey) writings from Vietnam all the time. He asks how Lester, a police officer, became such a well-known journalist. Luisa begins the story.

Lester was police officer who, during the celebrations after World War II, got assigned to investigate a looting at a warehouse. He and his partner crept up on some men who didn’t look like dock workers. Some other police cars arrived on the scene. Then, all of a sudden, the men pulled out submachine guns and started firing. As the gunmen, who were arms smugglers, jumped into a truck to escape, they threw hand grenades out the back. One hit Lester. He woke up two days later in a hospital without his left eye.

Although three officers died in the incident, no investigation ever took place. Rumors spread that the mayor's office had some connection to a crime syndicate. Lester lost faith in law enforcement and became a globe-traveling journalist. Even after the birth of Luisa, he rarely stopped traveling, and she didn’t see much of him. Back in the present, Rufus says Luisa’s father must have been proud of her, but Luisa protests that she’s still just a gossip columnist.

5. Luisa tells Rufus about her encounters with Hollywood people like Hitchcock, who was witty but distant. 6. Rufus shows Luisa a picture of himself with his niece Megan. Megan is a physicist with a Ph.D. from Caius College at Cambridge. Rufus himself doesn’t have any children. As the conversation turns back to journalism, Rufus asks Luisa how far she’d go to protect a source—would she risk her own life? Luisa says she would. Rufus feels he should tell Luisa something, but he hesitates. Then he leaves, promising to call her later.

7. The 10-year-old Javier Gomez is looking at stamps at Luisa’s apartment. When Luisa gets back, she’s angry because Javier had to jump across the balcony to get into her place. Javier asks why she’s back so late, and she tells him about the power outage. Javier begs Luisa to let him stay, and she agrees.

8. At a meeting for Spyglass magazine, a writer proposes a story about piranhas in the sewer that eat people. When it’s her turn to pitch to her boss, Dom Grelsch, Luisa is tired of reporting on untruthful stories. Instead, she proposes a story she heard from an inside contact (Rufus) about how a new nuclear reactor on Swannekke Island isn’t as safe as it’s supposed to be. Grelsch is skeptical, but he says she can run the story if it’s sensational enough and she can prove everything.

9. Luisa drives her VW Beetle to Swannekke Island for her story, passing protestors who all oppose the new plant. But the guards don’t seem worried, and when Luisa shows her press pass, she gets in easily. Luisa meets up with Fay Li, a Chinese American woman who works in PR. 10. Joe Napier watches several security cameras, including one where Li has a visitor (Luisa). Rufus is a whistleblower, and it’s Napier’s job to track him down.

11. Alberto Grimaldi is the CEO of Seaboard, the company behind the Swannekke Island nuclear plant. He gives a presentation at a podium about how nuclear energy is the power source of the future. Lloyd Hooks comes onto the stage next, and the two men jokingly insult each other, with Grimaldi saying the only way Lloyd will ever make it onto the company board is over Grimaldi’s dead body.

12. During her interview, Luisa pretends to leave to for the restroom, then tries to find Rufus’s office. The office door is open, and when she finds someone looking through Rufus’s notebooks. The man, an engineer who introduces himself as Isaac Sachs, assumes that Luisa must be Megan. Isaac asks where Rufus is, and Luisa says she’s been wondering the same thing. Eventually, Luisa reveals she isn’t Megan. Li comes to find her, and Luisa says she was looking to interview Rufus, but Li says Rufus will be away for a long time.

13. Rufus places a call to Hawaii while watching Grimaldi and Lloyd on TV. He expects to hear Megan on the other line of the phone, but instead, a male voice tells him that people are coming to get him, and he has 20 minutes, max. 14. Luisa tries to focus on her work while the other writers in her office joke around. She goes to see her boss, and he tells her that her article about a cover-up at Seaboard doesn’t have enough evidence.

15. Rufus hides a binder in a locker at the airport. He tries to book an immediate ticket to London, but due to an air-traffic-controller strike, the earliest flight is the next morning. Reluctantly, Rufus takes the ticket for the next day and accepts a room in the airport hotel. 16. Javier is doing homework at Luisa’s place while she works. Luisa gets a call from her mother that she lets go to voice mail, and her mother complains about various topics, like how she only recently heard that Luisa broke up with her boyfriend (Hal Brodie) a month ago.

17. At his hotel, Rufus reads some old letters that his old friend Robert Frobisher wrote almost 50 years ago. He worries for Luisa’s safety but hopes all will be well once he gets to Cambridge. 18. An assassin, Bill Smoke, sneaks into Rufus’s room and waits for him. When Rufus comes out, the assassin pounces and shoots Rufus in the head at close range.

19. Before a Spyglass meeting, Luisa reads the newspaper and is shocked to see an article about Rufus’s death, which gets classified as a suicide. Luisa tells a skeptical colleague that she believes the death is a murder. 20. Luisa shows up at the hotel and tries to get into Rufus’s room by pretending to be Megan. But all that the hotel management can do is give Luisa Rufus’s old letters, including his correspondence with Robert.

21. Luisa gets back to the office, and Grelsch is angry that she’s late for a meeting and that she continues to believe in the Seaboard cover up. Luisa, however, points out that something strange is going on: Rufus left a typed suicide note, even though he didn’t have a typewriter with him, and he also supposedly shot himself with a very quiet gun. Grelsch thinks it’s absurd to suggest that Seaboard has bought the cops, but Luisa points out that Seaboard is the 10th-largest corporation in the country. She says that according to her father (Lester), back in the day, Grelsch had grit and published real stories. Grelsch gives Luisa a little more time to follow her lead.

22. Luisa calls a man at a music store on the telephone and asks about a recording called Cloud Atlas Sextet by Robert Frobisher. The man has it and agrees to put the record aside. 23. Bill Smoke drives his black Chevy past Luisa’s apartment building, but she doesn’t notice. She rereads Robert’s letters to Rufus and is surprised when Robert references a comet-shaped birthmark. Luisa’s super tries to tell her that someone went up to her apartment already, but she can’t hear him because of the construction work outside.

24. Hal Brodie surprises Luisa in her apartment, as he’s taking books and records from her shelves. He says he left a voicemail for her, but apparently, she never checks her messages. They talk awkwardly, and Hal says he’s sorry Luisa’s dad died. Eventually, Hal leaves. Luisa goes in the bathroom and checks the mirror, where she sees she has a birthmark on her shoulder that looks just like a comet, in the same location where Robert described his.

25. Luisa drives her VW to find the anti-nuclear protestors who were near Swannekke Island. She meets Hester Van Zandt, who seems to be a leader among them. 26. Luisa goes with Hester to her office. Hester explains how channeling public outrage is one of the only ways protesters can wield power. Hester knows Rufus and is shocked to learn that Rufus wrote a report condemning the new nuclear plant. She tells Luisa to look into the name “Margo Roker.” She lets the anti-nuclear activists stay on her land. One day, some burglars broke into her place and beat her until she was in a coma. Hester thinks Margo’s coma is too convenient for Seaboard to be a coincidence.

27. Grimaldi, Napier, and Bill Smoke convene in Grimaldi’s Swannekke office. Such meetings are common, although this time, Li is also with them. They ask Li what she knows about Luisa, who describes her as unremarkable and probably not a radical. She thinks Luisa was just fishing for a story when she came to the office earlier, but Grimaldi warns that it’s dangerous enough that she knows there’s a story to find somewhere. After Li and Napier leave, Grimaldi tells Bill Smoke that he’s worried about Lloyd Hooks.  He also recommends that Bill Smoke should keep an “accident” ready for Luisa in case they need it.

28. Isaac Sachs sits at the Swannekke Hotel, thinking of Rufus’s death and imaging what might happen if he were to betray Seaboard. He sees Luisa wander into the hotel. 29. Grimaldi sits in a banquet hall, listening to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency give a speech and thinking about how his own speech earlier got a better reception than Lloyd Hooks’. Lloyd looks serious as he talks with the vice CEO, William Wiley. 30. Luisa tries to play innocent at the hotel, where she’s talking with Li. Li reintroduces Luisa to Isaac, who will speak with her for an interview.

31. Isaac Sachs talks to Luisa for a long time. He gets drunk and tries to shift the subject away from himself, asking if Luisa’s VW has a name. Luisa replies it’s named Garcia (named by an ex-boyfriend after Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead). Just then, Isaac gets up the nerve to ask Luisa why she was in Rufus’s office. Luisa says she’s heard about a report Rufus wrote. Isaac confirms he was part of Rufus’s team. Luisa asks if Isaac agrees with Rufus’s report, and Isaac cautiously says that he agrees there’s theoretical potential for risk.

32. The next morning, Luisa wonders what would’ve happened if she’d invited Isaac to her room. They have plans to meet for breakfast. Napier comes up to her and says she looks concerned. He informs her that Isaac can’t make their meeting because he’s hungover. Napier can show her around Swannekke Island instead. 33. Napier shows Luisa around the nuclear site. He thinks to himself about how he used to work as a police officer with Lester Rey and recalls how it’s been two decades since he last saw Luisa.

34. Li comes to Luisa’s hotel room alone, searching for Rufus’s report, since oil companies will pay a lot for a document that discredits atomic energy. 35. Later, Li takes Luisa to a lobster dinner. Li tells about a Seaboard employee who harassed her and how she got him transferred to a remote Kansas plant. She says she thinks that as a journalist, Luisa might be useful to her. She also says she’s also willing to cooperate with Luisa. Luisa remains guarded but says she understands.

36. Sometime later, Luisa’s phone rings, waking her from a dream. It’s Isaac. He tells her that before he left California, he gave Garcia a present. 37. Napier, who is tapping Luisa’s phone line, doesn’t see a Garcia anywhere in her file. Bill Smoke asks who Garcia is, and Napier angrily says he doesn’t know.

38. Luisa tries to sneak away and feels just like Robert Frobisher ducking out of a hotel without paying. She goes out to her VW, Garcia, and finds a report under the carpet in the trunk. Napier comes running after her, asking her to wait. Luisa rushes to start the car and go, accidentally hitting Napier when she backs up.

39. Somewhere at a roadside checkpoint near the hotel, Bill Smoke tells a guard that he should ignore Napier’s orders to stop the orange VW. Bill Smoke threatens the guard’s family and advises him to just look away. When Luisa comes to the gate, the guard lets her pass. Bill Smoke gets into his black Chevy and follows her. He pulls his car up next to her VW, then he swerves and bumps her car off the bridge and into water.