A selective rundown of the day’s events: June 16, 1904

I
Episode 1: 8:00am, Martello Tower, Sandycove
Stephen’s roommate Buck Mulligan mocks him for refusing to pray at his mother’s deathbed. Their houseguest Haines asks Stephen for his theory of Hamlet, but Mulligan cuts this short. Steven departs, leaving his key behind, as Mulligan takes a dip in a nearby swimming-hole.

Episode 2: 10:00am, Clifton Boys’ School, Dalkey
After teaching a class at the boys' school, Stephen collects his pay from the headmaster Mr Deasy while the boys play field hockey outside. Deasy gives an opinion piece he’s written on foot-and-mouth disease to Stephen, hoping he’ll use his literary connections to get it published.

Episode 3: 11:00am, Sandymount Strand
Stephen walks on the beach, lost in philosophical musings and self-criticisms. He writes a poem on a torn-off piece of Deasy’s letter.

II
Episode 4: 8:00am, the Blooms’ home, 7 Eccles St
Bloom brings Molly breakfast in bed—along with her mail, which includes a letter from Blazes Boylan saying he'll be coming over in the afternoon with songs for her upcoming concert tour. Bloom suspects this visit may involve more than music. Back in the kitchen, he reads his own mail: a letter from their their 15-year-old daughter Milly, who's away on a summer photography internship. He’s reminded of Milly’s brother Rudy, who died in infancy eleven years ago.

Episode 5: 9:30am, in and around Westland Row
Using a pseudonym, Bloom collects a piece of mail from a post office not near his home. It’s a racy letter from a woman named Martha he’s never met in person. He runs into Bantam Lyons, who mistakes an offhand remark he makes as a tip on today’s horse race. He buys a bar of soap and decides to visit the Turkish baths.

Episode 6: 11am, Irishtown to Glasnevin Cemetery
Bloom attends Paddy Dignam’s funeral. He rides to the cemetery in a carriage with Martin Cunningham, Mr Power, and Stephen’s father Simon. They pass Stephen, which prompts a tirade from Simon about Buck Mulligan. Mr Power spots Boylan and all salute him except Bloom. At the cemetery, Bloom’s musings on death range from the comic to the macabre.

Episode 7: 12pm, offices of the Freeman’s Journal
Bloom brokers the placement of a newspaper ad for a tea and liquor merchant. He runs out to clarify something with the advertiser. While he’s gone, Stephen stops by to submit Deasy’s letter for publication. Flush with the money he was paid this morning, Stephen offers to stand a round of drinks at a nearby pub. As everyone is heading out, Bloom returns and tries to waylay the editor, who dismisses him brusquely.

Episode 8: 1pm, O’Connell Bridge – Duke St – Kildare St
Bloom runs into Mrs Breen, an old flame, who tells him Mina Purefoy has been in labor at the maternity hospital for three days. Disgusted by messy eaters at the Burton restaurant, he opts for a light snack at Davy Byrne’s pub, where the prying questions of Nosy Flynn remind him of Molly’s impending infidelity. Savoring his wine, he falls into a reverie, remembering an amorous afternoon with Molly on the cliffs of Howth Head. Later he spots Boylan on the street and avoids him, ducking into the National Museum.

Episode 9: 2pm, the National Library
Stephen elaborates his theory of Hamlet for a small audience of literary luminaries. Later Mulligan appears, and he and Stephen have a passing encounter with Bloom at the library exit.

Episode 10: 3pm, all over Dublin
Several vignettes: Father Conmee amuses a group of schoolboys. Stephen’s sisters are hungry but the pot on the stove is boiling shirts. Boylan flirts with a girl who works at the fruit market. Stephen’s voice teacher (speaking Italian) urges him to pursue a singing career. Boylan’s secretary informs him by phone that Lenehan will meet him at the Ormond at 4pm. Bloom buys a smutty pulp novel for Molly. Stephen runs into one of his sisters and feels helpless to rescue her from the poverty she’s drowning in. Martin Cunningham and John Wyse Nolan note with surprise that Bloom has donated a considerable sum to a fund for Dignam’s widow.

Episode 11: 4pm, the bar at the Ormond Hotel
The barmaids, Miss Douce and Miss Kennedy, laugh about a greasy-nosed old pharmacist, imagining what it would be like to be married to him. While buying paper to write to Martha, Bloom spots Boylan entering the Ormond bar and decides to spy on him from the adjoining restaurant. Boylan has a drink and enjoys the admiration of the barmaids before riding off in his carriage to visit Molly.

Episode 12: 5pm, Barney Kiernan’s pub
Bloom stops in the pub to meet Martin Cunningham to solve a problem with Dignam's widow's insurance. Instead he encounters a group of drinkers including "the citizen," an Irish Nationalist who considers Bloom a foreigner because of his Jewish heritage. When Bloom leaves to look for Martin elsewhere, Lenehan tells the others, mistakenly, that he's gone to collect his winnings on a longshot horse. Bloom returns and the citizen confronts him about this “secret.” Conversation quickly turns heated, and Bloom makes a narrow escape.

Episode 13: 8pm, Sandymount Strand
Bloom has a wordless encounter at a distance with a young woman on the beach, Gerty McDowell. She lets him look up her skirt during a fireworks display, and he masturbates.

Episode 14: 10pm, National Maternity Hospital, Holles St
Bloom visits the maternity hospital to check on Mina Purefoy, who's been in labor for three days. There he finds a very drunk Stephen carousing with a group of medical students. Looking upon Stephen, he’s reminded of the son he lost.

Episode 15: 11pm, Nighttown
Bloom follows Stephen into Dublin’s brothel district. Hallucinations ensue. He meets a sex worker named Zoe, who steals the potato he carries as a talisman. He is named emperor-president and oversees construction of the New Bloomusalem. An angry mob pummels him with foodscraps. Several doctors diagnose him. He gives birth to eight children. Blazes Boylan appears and has a sexual encounter with Molly while Bloom watches through a keyhole. The ghost of Stephen’s mother appears, terrifying Stephen. He swings his walking stick at the apparition, smashing a lamp in the brothel. After leaving the establishment he’s struck in the face and knocked unconscious. While Bloom tends to Stephen he has a vision of his son Rudy, at the age he would be now if he had lived.

III
Episode 16: 12:40am, the cabman’s shelter at Custom House Quay
Bloom buys Stephen a cup of coffee and tries to convince him to eat. A nearby sailor claims he once saw Stephen’s father perform an astonishing feat of marksmanship. Bloom shows Stephen a photo of Molly and invites him over for a cup of cocoa.

Episode 17: 1:15am, the Blooms’ home
Bloom and Stephen have cocoa. Bloom offers a room for the night, but Stephen declines. They urinate in the back garden before Stephen disappears into the dark streets. Bloom crawls into bed beside Molly with his feet at the head of the bed. Before falling asleep he kisses her bottom, waking her.

Episode 18: 1:45am, the Blooms’ home
Molly, lying awake, reflects on her afternoon with Boylan and myriad events of her life, including the day Bloom proposed to her on Howth’s Head.