The book is about a young man, Holden Caulfield, who travels home after being expelled from an exclusive preparatory school. Instead of going directly home, Caulfield takes a wandering trip, thinking about what he wants to tell his family, and how best to deal with being kicked out of school. Caulfield narrates the story himself, to a psychoanalyst. (Hints are made as the story moves forward, that he is in a mental hospital. At the end of the book this is revealed.)