A global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic affects multiple levels simultaneously: global, national, community, interpersonal, and individual levels. While the interplay between different levels of narratives has been emphasised in narrative theoretisations (Bakhtin, 1984; Bruner, 1990; Hunt, 2023), the main focus in the literature has been on the interplay between individual-level narratives and societal-level master narratives, and this process’ importance for persons’ identities and selves (Bamberg & Andrews, 2004; Dunlop et al., 2021; Gergen & Gergen, 1983; Hammack, 2008; McLean & Syed, 2015; Wertsch, 1997). However, master narratives differ from those narratives that arise on different levels to provide meaning during societal ruptures. In this study, through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador, I explore 20 Ecuadorian interview participants’ multilevel narrative engagement with narratives circulating on various levels during the pandemic: the global, national, community, and interpersonal levels. When preparing for future crisis management, it is important with insights from countries that were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Ecuador. In this study, I find that in a context where the authorities’ handling has been criticized for being marked by corruption, insufficient information, inaction, and for placing responsibility for high infection levels on local communities, and where trust in the government was low, multilevel narrative engagement becomes important for citizens’ meaning-making and compliance with measures. Participants engaged with stories such as from international sources like the WHO (global level), communication from the government (national level), stories of consequences of the virus and the implemented measures from local communities (community level), and from family and friends (interpersonal level), to make sense of how they would relate to the government's crisis mitigation measures. Multilevel narrative engagement can thus be a conceptual tool that can shed light on citizens' meaning-making in other periods of global crisis and rupture.