Summary of Slaughterhouse-Five Slaughterhouse-Five tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, the main character, in chronological order, starting with Billy's capture and imprisonment by Germany during World War II. This story is interspersed with incidents of Billy's life on earth before and after the war, and from his fantasy voyage to the planet Tralfamadore. The plot is somewhat autobiographical, in reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. This book has a lot of minor characters. For this reason, only Kurt Vonnegut Jr., as the narrator, and Billy Pilgrim are fully developed. Some of the minor ch