Here

Content Warning: This guide includes scenes and suggestions of sexual violence and abuse.

Here focuses on the same corner of a room over billions of years, showing the same space before the room is built and even after it collapses. The graphic novel begins with scenes of the empty room in 1957, 1942, and 2007. A woman in a pink dress walks into the room in 1957. She is looking for something but cannot remember what it is. As she searches, a small panel dated 1999 shows a cat walking across the room.

In 1989, a group of four people—two elderly men, an elderly woman, and a younger woman—sit around the coffee table joking. One of the elderly men prompts the younger woman to tell her joke about the doctor. She tells them about a man who calls the doctor for test results. The doctor tells the man that he has both good and bad news to share. The good news is that the man has 24 hours to live, and the bad news is that the doctor meant to tell him the previous day. Everyone laughs, but one of the elderly men coughs and falls over. This conversation occurs in panels situated on pages that display scenes from before the house is built, spanning from 8,000 BCE to 1783 CE. On these pages dated in the late 1700s, trees are felled as a colonial home is built. In 1783, the home burns.

In 1959, two parents organize their four children on the couch to take a family photo. Pages begin to range across the 20th and 21st centuries, showing the room and its many designs. On these pages, panels show a family, this one with five children, taking pictures on the couch as someone outside the panels says “Smile” (42). There are panels in 1962, 1964, 1969, 1979, and 1983, showing the children growing into adulthood as their picture is taken. While the children pose for these photos, the pages and panels around them from different years show fragments of conversations and soundbites from the television in the corner.

On a dark night in 1995, the room is empty, but panels show a Christmas tree in the corner in different years while to its left, a man throws a baby into the air and catches it in 1962. In 1969, the room is prepared for a birthday party, and panels spanning the 20th century show mothers holding their babies. In 1986, a woman cleans the room, complaining that the cleaning never ends and lamenting her advancing age. On one side of the room, a panel shows a man in 1960 removing the wallpaper, while a panel on the other side of the room shows a different man installing the same wallpaper in 1949.

A dog barks in 1986, while a panel from 1954 shows a man complaining about how the dog always barks at the mailman. He describes it as a ritual they have. In 1959, a wife asks her husband if he has his keys, watch, and wallet. As a party unfolds in 1971, panels scatter the page showing parties from different years, including Halloween parties. One man wears a Benjamin Franklin costume in 1990, while a polar bear and crocodile converse in 1975. In 1964, a woman plays the piano while girls in 1932, 1993, and 2014 dance around the room.

A television program in 1999 explains how in millions of years, the sun will become a red giant and engulf the Earth and other planets. A woman and three children watch the show, and one of the children declares that she is glad she will not be around for that day. The wife from 1959 once again asks her husband if he has his watch, wallet, and keys, and a panel from 1958 shows her asking the same question. In 1993, a group of children play musical chairs while a couple in 1988 explains the story of how they met. The man says that he always saw the woman running by his window at work. She then explains that she was always late for work. The man then tells their audience that he followed her home, and they’ve been together since. A scene from 1996 shows firemen rushing through the room.

In 1986, the doorbell rings. While the woman on the couch wonders who it could be, a panel from 1609 shows an Indigenous man on top of an Indigenous woman. The Indigenous man believes he hears something and warns caution. The man at the door in 1986 is from the Archeological Society and wants to speak with the woman, who invites him in. The woman brings the man and his two colleagues into the living room and offers them water. The man explains that they were visiting the old, colonial house across the street. They all sit, and the man explains that the society studies Indigenous culture and that they believe the house may be an important archaeological site. Two panels on either side of them show Indigenous men in 1622. The man asks to see the backyard, and the woman agrees, leaving to get three lemonades. The man’s colleagues—a younger man and woman—stay, and the woman compliments his shirt that reads, “Future Transitional Fossil.” While they speak in 1986, panels from 2050 show two older men sitting beside floating panels. When one of them sticks his head through a panel, he comes out the other side with a baby face. When the man from the Archeological Society and woman return, the woman asks what they hope to find. The man tells her he hopes the house may be a burial site.