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Part 1: Everything 

Evelyn Quan Wang is a middle-aged Chinese American immigrant who lives in Southern California with her obliging husband, Waymond, and her daughter, Joy, who suffers from depression. She struggles to prepare a Chinese New Years party for her demanding father, referred to as Gong Gong, the Cantonese word for “grandfather,” while dealing with a range of personal and professional issues. Her business, a laundromat, is being audited by the IRS, and her marriage strains under the pressures of her daily life. Waymond attempts to serve Evelyn with divorce papers, though she does not notice. Meanwhile, Evelyn’s reluctance to accept that Joy is dating a young woman named Becky, who is not of Chinese descent, damages her already tense relationship with her daughter.  

Evelyn and Waymond bring Gong Gong with them to attend a meeting with the IRS. At the office, however, Waymond suddenly begins acting strangely as his body is taken over by a version of Waymond from a parallel universe, the “alphaverse.” He warns Evelyn that her life is in danger and gives her a pair of headphones and a careful set of instructions. After he exits Waymond’s body, Waymond has no recollection of their conversation. During their meeting with unfriendly IRS agent Deirdre, Evelyn is distracted by her strange conversation with “Alpha Waymond” and looks over the instructions he has left her. Following the instructions, she switches her shoes, shuts her eyes, and imagines that she is in the janitor’s closet of the office. When she presses a button on her headphones, Evelyn is suddenly transported to the janitor’s closet, though some part of her consciousness remains at the meeting with Deirdre.  

In the janitor’s closet, Alpha Waymond explains that an evil figure destroyed his universe and now threatens to destroy hers, though he believes that Evelyn might be able to stop it. Further, he notes that they are together in a “burner universe” that will soon be destroyed. Suddenly, Deirdre breaks into the janitor’s closet, kills Alpha Waymond, and snaps Evelyn’s neck, but Evelyn suddenly finds herself back in her universe, at the IRS meeting. There, Deirdre gives the Wangs until 6pm, when the office closes, to bring in all missing forms and receipts. As they leave the office, Deirdre walks up to the Wangs, and Evelyn, believing that Deirdre will attempt to kill them as she did in the burner universe, punches her, leading Deirdre to call security. Waymond and Evelyn have a brief argument about his attempt to serve her with divorce papers before security arrives. Suddenly, Alpha Waymond takes over Waymond’s body again and, after eating chapstick, touches the button on his headset and gains incredible skills in martial arts, defeating the security officers.  

In the burner universe where Deirdre attacked Waymond and Evelyn, Deirdre announces the presence of Jobu Tupaki, the villainous figure described by Alpha Waymond. Deirdre claims that Jobu is all-powerful and all-knowing, and she demonstrates an ability to instantly change reality around her. Jobu finds and kills the already-injured Evelyn in the burner universe, announcing to her followers that this is not the Evelyn they seek before jumping rapidly through multiple universes. She arrives at Evelyn’s universe and takes over Joy’s body, suggesting that she is an alternate version of Joy.  

Back at the IRS office, Alpha Waymond and Evelyn hide. Alpha Waymond explains that, in his universe, Evelyn was a brilliant scientist who proved the existence of multiverses and developed “verse-jumping,” a method of switching between different universes and gaining the skills and experiences of one’s alternate selves. In order to verse-jump, someone must first complete some “statistically improbable” action, such as when Waymond ate the chapstick. Additionally, he informs Evelyn that Jobu Tupaki has killed Evelyn in many other universes, including his own, and is now pursuing her in this universe. Further, Jobu is developing some powerful and mysterious device that has already begun to affect the multiverse. Suddenly, Evelyn and Alpha Waymond are attacked by a possessed Deirdre, who verse-jumps in order to gain pro-wrestling skills, brutally attacking an overpowered Alpha Waymond. Desperate, Evelyn performs an improbable act, telling Deirdre that she loves her in order to verse-jump. She sees various different versions of herself, including an Evelyn who rejected Waymond and became a famous actress and skilled martial artist. Returning to the office, she uses her new martial arts skills to defeat the possessed Deirdre.  

Evelyn and Alpha Waymond retreat into a conference room where Alpha Waymond explains that there are dangers to verse-jumping, as an untrained mind can begin to “crack” when jumping between universes. Further, he warns Evelyn that if she were to linger in another universe, enjoying the life of her alternative self, this would be very dangerous, inviting “chaos” and “contradiction.” In the Alphaverse, Alpha Waymond explains, he and Evelyn taught many people to verse-jump, including her daughter Joy. A talented protégé, Joy was pushed past her limits and, when experiencing an infinite number of parallel universes at once, her mind cracked, leading her to become Jobu Tupaki. Now, she is vastly powerful but no longer believes that life has meaning. Evelyn is briefly pulled into the universe where she is an actress, and in her distraction, she and Alpha Waymond are apprehended by the security officers, and Alpha Waymond is kicked out of Waymond’s body. Suddenly, Joy appears, and Evelyn realizes that her body has been taken over by Jobu when she warps reality around her and brutally kills the security guards. Evelyn taps the button on her headset and is suddenly transported to a universe where people have long, hotdog-like fingers, and she is married to Deirdre. Jobu then takes Evelyn to the universe where she has formed a powerful weapon that could destroy the universe, a black hole in the form of an “everything bagel.” After experiencing an endless variety of worlds with all their variations, Jobu has concluded that “nothing matters.”  

As Evelyn’s mind is almost sucked into the void, she and Alpha Waymond are rescued by Alpha Gong Gong, who is a powerful leader in his universe. Alpha Waymond explains that, while all the other Evelyns have gained great success and skills in the divergent paths their lives have taken, she is a unique failure, but as a result, she is uniquely capable of gaining skills by verse-jumping and defeating Jobu. Suddenly, Jobu leaves Joy’s body and returns to the Alphaverse in order to find and kill Alpha Waymond and his team, and Alpha Waymond returns to his universe, leaving Evelyn to attempt to explain the situation to a confused Waymond and Joy. Alpha Gong Gong briefly returns, however, and attempts to persuade Evelyn to kill Joy so that Jobu can no longer access their universe. When she refuses, Alpha Gong Gong attempts to kill Joy himself, and Evelyn verse-jumps and defeats Alpha Gong Gong, who calls on his agents in various universes to kill Joy and Evelyn so that neither become like Jobu.  

The agents descend upon the office building as Evelyn verse-jumps to acquire new skills from different universes, including ones where she is a blind opera singer, a sign-twirler, and a teppanyaki chef whose colleague is controlled by a racoon in the manner of the film Ratatouille, though she interferes with the lives of those alternate selves while gaining their abilities. She defeats a number of agents and Alpha Gong Gong, though she pushes herself beyond her mental capacity when jumping between worlds. Alpha Waymond briefly returns and tells Evelyn that he believes she can defeat Jobu before returning to his universe, where he is killed by Jobu. Back in Evelyn’s universe, Jobu appears, but when Evelyn prepares to fight her, she falls to the ground, overwhelmed by all her verse-jumping, and Jobu leaves her for dead. Evelyn jumps uncontrollably between universes, accidentally disrupting the lives of her alternative selves. 

Part 2: Everywhere 

Evelyn finds herself back at the laundromat prior to the New Year’s Eve party. There, Jobu again takes over Joy’s body. Evelyn and Jobu move between universes together, and Jobu notes that she and Evelyn now mutually understand the emptiness of their lives. Both are now supremely powerful and cannot defeat each other. Jobu takes Evelyn back to the Everything Bagel and Evelyn experiences a countless number of lives simultaneously. Jobu explains that she never intended to kill Evelyn, but rather, to find someone who could share her experience of infinity. Momentarily, Evelyn agrees with Jobu that “nothing matters.” Deeply affected by her experience of the multiverse, she verse-jumps wantonly and behaves irresponsibly, stabbing Waymond in one universe and destroying her own laundromat in her own. In one universe where biological life never developed, Jobu and Evelyn are two rocks, who communicate nonverbally. They discuss the insignificance of humanity in the face of an endless universe and, after returning to the Everything Bagel, Jobu admits that she created it in the hopes of dying once and for all.  

As Jobu and Evelyn prepare to enter the Bagel, Evelyn returns to the laundromat, which has been claimed by the IRS after Evelyn failed to turn in her paperwork. She is surprised to discover that Waymond was able to convince Deirdre to give them another week. In the universe where Evelyn is an actress, she speaks to Waymond, whom she rejected decades earlier and who has since become a successful and wealthy man. He tells her that, in another life, he would have been content simply being with Evelyn, even if their lives were modest and humble. Back at the IRS office, Waymond is able to briefly talk down the agents and Alpha Gong Gong. As Jobu attempts to convince Evelyn to enter the Everything Bagel, Evelyn reflects upon the quiet strength of her husband and is inspired by his insistence on kindness, despite the difficulties of life. Jobu summons the Everything Bagel and prepares to enter it and, instead of fighting, Evelyn uses her powers in a loving manner to dispatch the agents. Finally, she confronts Alpha Gong Gong and tells him that she will not abandon Joy like he once abandoned her after her marriage to Waymond. Back at the laundromat, Evelyn introduces Gong Gong to Joy’s girlfriend, though Joy storms off afterwards. Simultaneously, Evelyn stops Jobu from entering the Bagel while also affirming her love for Joy at the laundromat, where she claims that she would rather be there, with her daughter, than anywhere else in any universe. In the other universes, the various versions of Evelyn solve their own issues.  

Part 3: All at Once  

Back at the IRS office, Deirdre goes over the paperwork with Evelyn, Waymond, and Joy. Briefly, Evelyn’s mind wanders to her alternative selves in their various universes, but she returns her attention to her own life.  

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