The novel begins with what appears to be a preface to the book itself, dated January 5, 1980. In it, the narrator describes finding a book on August 16, 1968, that was written in 1842 by “a certain Abbé Vallet” (xiii), who reproduced a fourteenth-century narration by the monk, Adso of Melk. Vallet claims he found the book in the monastery of Melk. The narrator describes how he completed a translation from the French into Italian, while also searching for the original manuscript during a trip to Melk. After finding no trace of the manuscript in the monastery library, he then unexpectedly loses the Vallet version. Upon arriving in Paris, he decides to dig deeper, consulting libraries and friendly scholars. Though he cannot find evidence that Adso of Melk ever existed, he does discover a very old book that quotes directly from Adso’s original manuscript. He concludes that “Adso’s memoirs…share the nature of the events he narrates: shrouded in many…shadowy mysteries, beginning with the identity of the author and ending with the abbey’s location” (xvi). He decides to publish his edition of the manuscript anyway, and then recounts the editorial choices he has made.