The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee.

Loomings -- The carpet-bag -- The spouter-inn -- The counterpane -- Breakfast -- The street -- The chapel -- The pulpit -- The sermon -- A bosom friend -- Nightgown -- Biographical -- Wheelbarrow -- Nantucket -- Chowder -- The ship -- The Ramadan -- His mark -- The prophet -- All astir -- Going aboard -- Merry Christmas -- The Lee shore -- The advocate -- Postscript -- Knights and squires -- Knights and squires -- Ahab -- Enter Ahab; to him, Stubb -- The pipe -- Queen Mab -- Cetology -- The specksynder -- The cabin-table -- The mast-head -- The quarter-deck. Ahab and all -- Sunset -- Dusk -- First night-watch -- Forecastle--midnight -- Moby Dick -- The whiteness of the whale -- Hark! -- The chart -- The affidavit -- Surmises -- The mat-maker -- The first lowering -- The hyena -- Ahab's boat and crew. Fedallah -- The spirit-spout -- The Pequod meets the Albatross -- The gam -- The town-ho's story -- Monstrous pictures of whales -- Less erroneous pictures of whales -- Of whales in paint, in teeth, &C -- Brit -- Squid -- The line -- Stubb kills a whale -- The dart -- The crotch -- Stubb's supper -- The whale as a dish -- The shark massacre -- Cutting in -- The blanket -- The funeral -- The sphynx -- The Pequod meets the Jeroboam, her story -- The monkey-rope -- Stubb and flask kill a right whale -- The sperm whale's head -- The right whale's head -- The battering-ram -- The great Heidelburch Tun -- Cistern and buckets -- The praire -- The nut -- The Pequod meets the virgin -- The honor and glory of whaling -- Jonah historically regarded -- Pitchpoling -- The fountain -- The tail -- The grand armada -- Schools and schoolmasters -- Fast-fish and loose-fish -- Heads or tails -- The Pequod meets the rose-bud -- Ambergris -- The castaway -- A squeeze of the hand -- The cassock -- The try-works -- The lamp -- Stowing down and clearing up -- The doubloon -- The Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby of London -- The decanter -- A bower in the Arsacides -- Measurement of the whale's skeleton -- The fossil whale -- Does the whale diminish? -- Ahab's leg -- The carpenter -- The deck, Ahab and the carpenter -- The cabin, Ahab and Starbuck -- Queequeg and his coffin -- The pacific -- The blacksmith -- The forge -- The gilder -- The Pequod meets the bachelor -- The dying whale -- The whale watch -- The quadrant -- The candles -- The deck -- Midnight, on the forecastle -- Midnight, aloft -- The musket -- The needle -- The log and line -- The life-buoy -- Ahab and the carpenter -- The pequod meets the Rachel -- The cabin, Ahab and Pip -- The hat -- The Pequod meets the delight.