11/22/63 by Stephen King (2011 novel)
Jake Epping is a recently divorced high school English teacher in the quiet town of Lisbon Falls, Maine. To earn extra money, he teaches GED classes to adults trying to improve their lives. One day, Jake gives his students a simple but revealing assignment: to write about a day that changed their lives forever. Among the submissions, one essay stands out — a harrowing story written by Harry Dunning, the school’s learning-disabled janitor. In heartbreaking detail, Harry recounts the night his alcoholic father murdered his mother and siblings with a hammer. Only Harry survived. Jake is deeply moved by the essay, and over time, helps Harry earn his GED — a small but meaningful victory for a man who has endured so much.
Two years later, Jake’s quiet life takes a surreal turn. His friend Al Templeton, owner of a local diner, suddenly calls him in for an urgent meeting. Jake is shocked when he arrives — the man he saw looking healthy just the day before now appears frail and dying of lung cancer. Al reveals an incredible secret hidden in his diner: a time portal concealed in the pantry that leads to Lisbon Falls on September 9, 1958, at precisely 11:58 a.m.
Skeptical but curious, Jake steps through and finds himself transported back in time. The world of 1958 feels alive — vibrant, clean, and untouched by the cynicism of his own era. When he returns moments later, he learns that no matter how long he spends in the past, only two minutes pass in the present. Each time someone enters the portal, it resets to the same moment in 1958, erasing everything done before.
Al explains that he has spent years using the portal, believing he could change history for the better. His goal: to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Al is convinced that saving Kennedy would stop the Vietnam War and improve the world’s future. He spent four years in the past tracking Lee Harvey Oswald’s movements but became too sick to finish his mission. With death approaching, he pleads with Jake to take his place.
Unsure whether he believes in Al’s idealism, Jake decides to test the theory on a smaller scale — by using the portal to prevent the massacre of Harry Dunning’s family. Adopting the alias George Amberson, Jake travels to Derry, Maine, and begins observing Harry’s father, Frank Dunning. The man is as monstrous as Harry described. On Halloween night, Frank attacks his family with a hammer, but Jake intervenes, saving most of them.
When Jake returns to 2011, he is hopeful that he’s made Harry’s life better — only to learn that his interference caused unintended consequences. Harry survived, but later died in the Vietnam War. Disillusioned, Jake realizes that changing the past is not as simple as it seems. Soon after, Al, too ill to continue living, takes his own life, leaving Jake alone with the burden of choice.
Determined to finish what Al started, Jake goes back through the portal, once again resetting the past to 1958. This time, he kills Frank Dunning outright, ensuring Harry’s family’s safety. He then travels through the southern states, taking odd jobs and observing history unfold, waiting until the early 1960s when Oswald appears in Dallas.
Eventually, Jake settles in Jodie, Texas, a small town near Dallas, where he takes a job as an English teacher at the local high school. Life in Jodie feels idyllic, almost too good to be true. He meets Sadie Dunhill, the new librarian, a charming and independent woman recovering from a traumatic marriage to her obsessive, controlling ex-husband, John Clayton. As they work together on a memorial project for a retiring colleague, Jake and Sadie fall deeply in love. For the first time, Jake begins to doubt whether he should continue Al’s mission.
Meanwhile, Jake quietly monitors Lee Harvey Oswald, who has returned from the Soviet Union with his Russian wife, Marina. Using hidden microphones and notes from Al’s research, Jake tracks Oswald’s movements and connections — particularly his interactions with George de Mohrenschildt, a mysterious figure possibly involved in an earlier assassination attempt on General Edwin Walker.
Jake plans to verify Oswald’s role by watching the Walker attempt firsthand, but fate intervenes. Sadie’s deranged ex-husband finds her, takes her hostage, and nearly kills her. Jake and Deke Simmons, the school principal, rescue her just in time, but Jake misses the chance to confirm Oswald’s involvement.
As the fateful date of November 22, 1963, approaches, Jake prepares to act. But after a violent confrontation with a local gangster, Akiva Roth, Jake is beaten nearly to death and suffers memory loss. Weeks pass before he recovers enough to recall Al’s plan. With Sadie’s help, he pieces together his mission, retrieves Al’s notebook, and heads for Dallas. Despite Jake’s warning letter begging her to stay away, Sadie insists on accompanying him.
Together, they race against time to reach the Texas School Book Depository. Jake confronts Oswald moments before he can shoot President Kennedy. A struggle breaks out — and Jake kills Oswald before he can fire a fatal shot. But the victory comes at a devastating price: Sadie is shot and killed in the crossfire.
Jake becomes an unexpected national hero. President Kennedy and Jackie personally thank him for saving the President’s life. Yet Jake feels nothing but loss. When he returns to Lisbon Falls, the mysterious Yellow Card Man — a figure who guards the time portal — warns him to go back and “see what you’ve done.”
Jake steps back into 2011 and finds the world utterly changed. The planet is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, ravaged by natural disasters and nuclear war. The United States fell into chaos after a 1974 atomic exchange, civil rights progress was reversed, and political corruption consumed the country. Jake’s attempt to save Kennedy caused a chain reaction of unintended global consequences.
The Yellow Card Man reappears and explains that each trip through the portal creates a new “string” — an alternate reality — and overlapping these realities threatens to destroy the fabric of existence. He reveals that he and others like him are cursed to monitor these portals, often driven insane by witnessing countless versions of time unravel. He urges Jake to restore the original timeline — to let Kennedy die.
Heartbroken but resolute, Jake returns to 1958 one final time. He lingers for a while, contemplating whether to warn Sadie about her abusive ex-husband or interfere in any other way. In the end, he chooses not to disrupt the past again. He steps back into the present, where time has returned to normal.
Years later, Jake, now living quietly outside Lisbon Falls, learns that Sadie is still alive — now an elderly woman in her eighties, being honored as “Citizen of the Century” in Jodie. He travels to Texas to see her once more. Though she doesn’t recognize him, Jake feels their unspoken connection. As they dance together, Jake remembers the love they shared in another life — a life that no longer exists but will always live on in his heart.