There are two ways to read a story. The first uses its slug, the number in its address. The second uses its GraphQL ID, which is what mutations and most other objects give you. GraphQL IDs and nodes explains the difference.

By slug

Use the story query with the slug. This example reads the story with the slug 123. It returns the title of the latest version and the name of the owner:

query {
  story(slug: 123) {
    id
    slug
    version {
      title
    }
    user {
      name
    }
  }
}

The response:

{
  "data": {
    "story": {
      "id": "U3Rvcnk6MTIz",
      "slug": 123,
      "version": {
        "title": "Hello world!"
      },
      "user": {
        "name": "John Doe"
      }
    }
  }
}

By ID

Use the node query with the ID. Because node can return any type, wrap the fields in ... on Story:

query {
  node(id: "U3Rvcnk6MTIz") {
    ... on Story {
      id
      version {
        title
      }
      user {
        name
      }
    }
  }
}

The only difference in the response is the name of the key, node instead of story:

{
  "data": {
    "node": {
      "id": "U3Rvcnk6MTIz",
      "version": {
        "title": "Hello world!"
      },
      "user": {
        "name": "John Doe"
      }
    }
  }
}

To get the same shape as the first query, give the field an alias:

query {
  story: node(id: "U3Rvcnk6MTIz") {
    ... on Story {
      id
    }
  }
}

Choose the version

version returns the latest published version, in the preferred language of the user whose token you use. Pass lang to read another language, or uuid to read one specific version:

query {
  story(slug: 123) {
    version(lang: "fr") {
      title
      published
      publishedAt
    }
  }
}