Editing Use of Weapons (section)

==Plot summary==
The book is made up of two narrative streams, interwoven in alternating chapters. The numbers of the chapters indicate which stream they belong to: one stream is numbered forward in words (One, Two ...), while the other is numbered in reverse with [[Roman numerals]] (XIII, XII ...). The story told by the former moves forward chronologically (as the numbers suggest) and tells a self-contained story, while the latter is written in [[reverse chronology]] with each chapter successively earlier in Zakalwe's life.<ref name="NewScientist">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13217975.900-review-time-waits-for-no-author-.html|title=Review: Time waits for no author|access-date=2008-05-15|date=1991-11-30|author=John Gribbin|work=NewScientist}}</ref> Further complicating this structure is a prologue and epilogue set shortly after the events of the main narrative, and many flashbacks within the chapters.

The forward-moving narrative stream deals with the attempts of Diziet Sma and a drone named Skaffen-Amtiskaw (of Special Circumstances, a division of Contact Section) to re-enlist Zakalwe for another job. He must make contact with Beychae, an old colleague, who lives in a politically unstable star cluster, to further the aims of the Culture in the region. The payment that Zakalwe demands is the location of a woman, named Livueta. The backward-moving narrative stream describes earlier jobs that Zakalwe has performed for the Culture, ultimately returning to his pre-Culture childhood with his two sisters (Livueta and Darckense) and a boy his age named Elethiomel whose father has been imprisoned for treason.

As the two streams of the narrative conclude, it emerges that Elethiomel and Zakalwe commanded two opposing armies in a bloody civil war. Elethiomel took Darckense hostage before finally having her killed and her bones and skin made into a chair, to be sent to Zakalwe, who attempted suicide upon receiving it.

After the successful extraction of Beychae, a severely wounded Zakalwe is taken back to his homeworld to see Livueta. She rejects him and reveals that the person called "Cheradenine Zakalwe" is in fact Elethiomel, who had stolen the real Zakalwe's identity after the latter killed himself during the civil war. Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm and Skaffen-Amtiskaw performs surgery in an attempt to save his life with initially unclear results. The epilogue is a continuation of the prologue; whether the story told by these "bookends" takes place prior to, or after, Zakalwe/Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm, is not immediately obvious until the epilogue, in which the clue that it takes place not long after is "Zakalwe pushing his hand through long hair that isn't there any more …"<ref>{{cite web |title=Iain M Banks Q&A |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/11/iainbanks-science-fiction |website=The Guardian |date=11 Sep 2000 |access-date=2019-09-26}}</ref>