Several boys are abandoned on an island. The oldest among them are about 12 while the youngest are 6. Ralph,12 years old, is voted to be the leader among the group after blowing into a conch shell and assembling the meeting. Piggy, the fat one with glasses, suggested the idea of using the conch shell to call a meeting, but was ignored by everyone. They decide that whoever has the conch shell is the one who is allowed to speak. Jack, the red headed, tall leader of the choir boys wanted to be the leader, but was outvoted. He asks to make his choir boys hunters and the group consents. Ralph chose Jack and a boy named Simon to come with him as they went out and explored the island. Piggy was given the task of gathering and counting together all the boys. While the three boys are out exploring, they start to form of bond while they scale the mountainside and push rocks over the edge. They come across a piglet trapped in the vegetation and Jack is about to kill it, but hesitates. The pig gets away. Jack vows to kill him next time.
When the three boys get back after climbing the tall mountain, they hold a meeting to tell them what they discovered. After asking if the group has found anything significant, a bashful 6 year old boy with a birthmark on his cheek is encouraged to tell the group what he saw. After some resistance, he tells them that he saw a beastie thing or a snake like thing. The group of boys make fun of him. Then Ralph suggests the idea of making a fire. The boys go up the mountain to make the fire so a passing ship can see the smoke. After making the fire, Jack dedicates part of his choir boys (the hunters) to guarding the fire. Piggy takes the conch and shares his feelings about not being listened to, ironically no one listens to him until he points out that the fire is starting to spread. The flames get out of control and fall onto the dried up palm trees and canopy below, consuming part of the island. The little boy who claimed to saw the beastie thing/ snake-thing hasn’t been seen since making the claim, and they have reason to believe that he was down below the mountain where the fire spread to.
Tensions increase as the group gets more organized. After suggesting they make huts, it’s only Ralph and Simon who are the ones working. The littluns, as they are now called (those around 6), spend the day eating and playing in the sand. The bigguns, start to help then wander off doing their own thing. This makes Ralph upset, especially at Jack for spending the entire day hunting, and has yet to come back with anything. Both Jack and Ralph have a bad feeling about the island.
Three of the littluns are busy building sandcastles when Roger and Maurice come over and knock them over. Maurice goes away, while one of the littluns plays in the water. Roger watches the littlun (Henry) and throws rocks at him, hiding behind a tree. He gets recruited by Jack. Jack gets the more part of his choir boys to join him on a hunt for a pig. He paints half his face red, the other half white, and draws a black line from ear to cheek. While they are out hunting, Ralph, Simmon, and Piggy are swimming and see in the distance smoke from a ship. They realize the fire in the mountain is out and they hurry to put the fire back on. It’s too late and by the time they reach the top of the mountain, the ship is gone. Ralph and Piggy are furious at Jack, who at this point is glorying in his kill, a fresh pig. Because Piggy is more outspoken and vulnerable, Jack punches Piggy in the stomach and breaks his glasses. Jack withholds from hurting him anymore because he respects Ralph. Jack and his choir boys re-start the fire and they cook the pig. Piggy doesn’t get any meat because he didn’t join in on the hunt, and he’s upset at the unfairness because Ralph didn’t either, but he got meat. Simon felt sorry for Piggy so he gave Piggy his meat. That upsets Jack, but he ends up giving Simon more meat anyway.
Ralph calls an assembly. He talks about how they all say they are going to do something at the assemblies, but then nothing ever gets down. The fire goes out, no one brings in any water, and people are going to the bathroom wherever they want. Moreover, people are getting scared because the littluns keep talking about the beast. He asks if there is a beast. Jack says he’s been all over the island, he hasn’t seen any beast. Piggy asks the littluns what they think. One of them mentions having a nightmare and going out in the woods at night to a spot he likes. He gets reprimanded. Another boy, Percival, talks about how he says the beast lives in the water. That gets the boys stirred up. The boys start talking out of turn. Someone suggests the beast is a ghost. More people start talking. Before they can take a vote on it, people dismiss themselves from the assembly. The littluns leave first. Ralph thinks he shouldn’t be leader any more. Piggy wants him to be because he knows that if he’s not the leader, then Jack will hurt Piggy. Moreover, Jack will have everyone hunting and not care about the smoke. Simon agrees with Piggy. They all three start to miss the protection of adults and wonder how the adults would handle things. At the end of the chapter, Percival is caught up in the grass and is screaming, but we don’t know what’s happening to him.
In the middle of the night, a plane exploded up in the sky, and a paratrooper crash landed on the island. Meanwhile, the twins were supposed to be watching the fire, but they both fell asleep. They woke up to the parachute and it scared them both. They thought it was the beast. They woke up the whole island and they decided to go looking for it. Jack says he’s covered most of the island except for a place where the rocks are susceptible to falling. So they go there to see if the beast is there. Him and Ralph climb up, they don’t find anything. The tension eases for the kids and they want to play around. Ralph is still very concerned about finding the beast on top of the mountain and re-lighting the fire. Earlier, Ralph and Piggy and Jack fought once more over who can talk and who should hold the shell.
On the trail to find the beast a boar came charging at the company. Ralph speared him and the boar went off. Ralph felt a sense of pride. Jack tried finishing the job but his arm got cut by the boar. Roger pretended to be the boar, and then they got carried away. They grabbed him and Jack made as if he was about to cut Roger. Maurice then had the idea to keep time to a drum and dress up someone as a pig, and do that as a ritual. Jack mentioned the idea of getting the littlun dressed up as a pig. They continued up the mountain, but it started to get dark. All but Ralph, Roger and Jack decided to keep going. They chose to go up the burnt side of the mountain thinking it would be a faster route (also unfamiliar to Jack). They reached the top where they found something bowed near where they had kept the fire.
Ralph and Jack tell the others about the beast. Jack calls an assembly and makes a vote to vote out Ralph, accusing him of being a coward. No one votes to out Ralph as leader, Jack is upset and goes on his own. Simon steps in and says, let’s go to the mountain. Piggy says let’s just start a fire on the beach. People love that idea and begin working. They realize a lot of the biguns are missing. Simon went by himself, and the choir boys went and followed Jack. Piggy gets a new confidence with Jack gone and people listening to him. Meanwhile, Jack and his crew kill a momma pig and leave the head for the beast. They plan to steal some fire from Ralph’s company. Ralph is doubting is ability to lead when Jack the boys come in and surprise everyone by raiding their place. They steal some of their fire. Jack invites them to come and look at their feast. He’ll consider letting some people join. Meanwhile, Simon hallucinates and the head of the pig, The Lord of the Flies, talks to Simon. He tells Simon to have fun and to not try and be rescued or he’ll come after him. Simon passes out.
Simon wakes up, stumbles to wear the parachute man is and realizes what the beast actually is. He goes to tell the others. Meanwhile, all the other boys have left except for Ralph and Piggy. They decide to go and see what’s up. They are a little afraid because the clouds are getting more and more gnarly. When Piggy and Ralph get to the tribe, they all stop. There’s a tension in the air, but when two boys bump into Piggy they all laugh and the tension eases. They feed Ralph and Piggy. Then Jack asks who wants to join his tribe. Who wants to elect him chief? Ralph opposes, but his arguments are really weak compared to Jack’s. Ralph’s arguments have to do with the conch and the fire, Jack argues that the conch is on the other side of the island and it doesn’t matter and Jack is the one who feeds them. The clouds start to lightning. Ralph argues that the shelters are on his side of the island. The boys start to do their chant for comfort. Ralph and Piggy want to join them. The rain starts to fall and Simon comes back to tell them the news. He gets caught up in the ritual and they go after him. He falls over a ledge. They push a rock onto him. They kill him. The rain falls down heavily and the wind has picked up. The boys scatter. The parachute man on top of the mountain is pulled out of the entanglement (Simon untangled the corpse while he was up there) and brought down to the bottom of the island because of the storm. Around midnight the storm calms, and the tide takes Simon’s body out to the ocean.
A few littluns remained with Ralph. The only biguns were Ralph, Piggy and Samneric. They all said they left early after the dance, no one wanted to admit what they saw and did last night. Piggy was talking with Ralph earlier and tried to rationalize it away, saying they were caught up in the dance, and somehow it was Simon’s fault for him getting murdered for spooking them in the dark like that. The chief plans to get more meat the following day, keeping a few to defend the gate from the beast and possible intruders. They plan on stealing fire that night, Jack, Maurice, and Roger. While they were all asleep, Jack, Maurice and Roger beat them up in their sleep. Ralph and them fended them off. In the end, they stole Piggy’s glasses.
Ralph and company decide to talk to Jack like men and not savages. They deem that Piggy be the one to hold the conch and to talk with them. Piggy’s plan is to admit that he’s stronger, and he give it back not cause he’s stronger, but because it’s right. They came to the Castle Rock, Ralph spoke and Jack and him got into a fight. Piggy took the conch and blew it, trying to call an assembly and make his voice heart. Then Roger let down a rock. Piggy couldn’t see the rock, it hit him off the cliff, broke the conch, and Piggy fell forty feet and his head bashed open. The sea took his dead body back into the ocean. Jack threw a spear and it cut Ralph’s stomach. Ralph ran away. Jack was upset for leaving his post. Samneric refuse to join Jack’s tribe.
Samneric joined the tribe. Ralph climbed up the Castle Rock to ask for help.they told him they’d hunt for him and gave him some meat. Ralph told them where he would be hiding so they’d keep away from him. They were both tortured because they associated with him and didn’t tell the tribe. He hid in a rock space made by the rock that crushed piggy. They then ratted out where he was hiding. The tribe started a fire to smoke him out. They also dropped rocks on him. He ran away from them and the fire. When he made it to the beach a Navy officer was standing there. Ralph wept, then all the other boys wept.