Clay Jensen mysteriously receives a package of cassette tapes that contain recordings by Hannah Baker—a girl who recently committed suicide. The tapes outline the thirteen reasons, or people, who drove her to kill herself. Clay is baffled to be on this “list” because he had a crush on Hannah and thought he was always nice to her. As Clay listens to the cassette tapes, he slowly learns how big events and even small events had lead to Hannah’s final act and how a seemingly perfect and beautiful girl was struggling underneath her smile.