Booker Dewitt, the player’s character, has been entrusted with the job of going to Columbia to rescue a girl, Elizabeth, and bring her back to New York. Apparently, this deed will rid Booker of all his (gambling?) debts.
After blasting off into Columbia, Booker goes about trying to get to Elizabeth, who’s locked away in a tower. Before he can reach her, he receives a telegram telling him NOT to pick number 77. He ignores it, not understanding what it means. He then sees a sign showing off a somewhat devilish hand with the letters “AD” printed on the back of it. These letters (AD) match the letters imprinted on the back of Booker’s, hand.
The prophet Comstock, the ruler of Columbia, predicted that a “false shepherd” would come to Columbia to try and steal their lamb (Elizabeth) from them. This false shepherd can be identified by the AD mark on the back of his hand. This false shepherd is Booker.
After going to watch the Columbia raffle on his way to the tower, Booker is told to choose a raffle ball, which he does. It is number 77, and he wins the raffle. His prize is getting to throw his ball at a couple of tied up Columbians — one white, one black. After going to throw the ball, Booker’s hand is stopped by a police officer, who reveals him as the false shepherd. Now Booker must fight through hundreds of people just to get to Elizabeth — and hundreds more to try and escape Columbia.
After he finds her, things become pretty straight forward; escape this city in the sky.
Ripping time and space
It isn’t until near the end that the plot heats up again. Before we go into this though, we need to take a look at Elizabeth’s “tearing” power.
Oh, off topic but it is also important to remember she has one of her little fingers missing.
Elizabeth received this tearing power after the Lutece’s twins experimented on her (she did not naturally have this power). The twins had previously made machinery that could open tears. After these experiments, Elizabeth could do so without any help.
Tears are basically otherworldly things. Other dimensions. A open tear can bring in something from another world — or you can enter an entirely new world. However, and I stress this, new universes or items can’t be created from scratch. They have to already exist for them to be brought into either the current world or accessed in their entirety.
With Elizabeth’s power out the way, let’s move on.
The Songbird
Songbird, a massive mechanical bird that protects Elizabeth and that can be summoned and controlled by a whistle-flute thing, always seems to intervene at the last moment and take Elizabeth from Booker. When Songbird does this near the end, Booker tries to rescue her. He hears, through mini-tears in the air, Elizabeth being tortured and brainwashed into becoming the heir to the throne that Comstock wanted her to be.
After going through a tear into another dimension, Booker discovers an old, frail Elizabeth looking out over a burning city. The chaos is her doing. She explains to Booker that this can never happen and gives him a piece of paper to give to the young Elizabeth. He then goes through another tear into a universe where Elizabeth is still being tortured and brainwashed. After rescuing her, he gives her the note. All seems well.
They go on to find Comstock. But after he (Comstock) tries to get Booker to explain why Elizabeth is missing her pinkie finger, Booker kills him, denying any knowledge of it. Elizabeth, however, knows Booker knows something, even if he doesn’t remember.
They attempt to escape, but they are attacked again — this time by loads of Vox. Elizabeth then realizes she can control Songbird by using the whistle. They use Songbird to help kill the remaining Vox. Afterward, Elizabeth gets Songbird to destroy the Siphon; the original source of her power and a device that forces her to remain within Columbia and stops her opening up another dimension to escape into.
