Plates Explanation

The Book of Mormon is a fictional book about warring nations of people with common ancestry. The characters kept their history and wrote out the lessons they learned from both times of war and peace. They wrote their history on plates of metal. This is a short explanation of those plates:

The Small Plates of Nephi:
Mostly dedicated to moral topics, but also contains the early history of the Nephites. These plates include the books 1 Nephi, 2nd Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, and Omni.

The Large Plates of Nephi:
Mostly dedicated to the history of the Nephites which was abridged by Mormon and added to by his son Moroni, but they also include moral topics. These plates include the rest of the books in The Book of Mormon (except Ether), starting with "Words of Mormon".

The Plates of Ether:
An abridged history and moral lessons of the Jaredites, who destroyed themselves.

The Plates of Brass:
They contain the history and genealogy of the Nephites.