Seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield, who is in the sanatorium, recalls “that crazy story that happened last Christmas”, after which he “nearly lost his ends”, was sick for a long time, and now he is undergoing treatment and soon hopes to return home.

His memories begin on the very day he left Pansy, a closed high school in Egerstown, PA. Actually, he didn’t leave of his own free will - he was expelled for academic failure - out of nine subjects in that quarter, he failed five. The situation is complicated by the fact that Pansy is not the first school that the young hero leaves. Before that, he had already abandoned Elcton Hill, because, in his conviction, “there was one solid linden”. However, the feeling that there is a "linden" around him - falsity, pretense and pretense - does not leave Caulfield throughout the novel. Both adults and peers with whom he meets cause irritation in him, but he alone cannot be left unbearable.

The last day of school is full of conflicts. He returns to Pansy from New York, where he went as captain of a fencing team for a match that did not take place due to his fault - he forgot sports equipment in the subway car. Roommate Stradlater asks him to write an essay for him - to describe a house or a room, but Caulfield, who loves to do everything his own way, talks about the baseball glove of his late brother Allie, who wrote it in verse and read them during matches. Having read the text, Stradlater resents the author who deviated from the topic, claiming that he planted a pig for him, but Caulfield, saddened by the fact that Stradlater went on a date with a girl who liked himself, does not remain in debt. The case ends with Caulfield’s brawl and broken nose.

Once in New York, he realizes that he cannot come home and inform his parents that he was expelled. He gets in a taxi and drives to the hotel. On the way, he asks his favorite question, which haunts him: “Where do the ducks go in Central Park when the pond freezes?” The taxi driver, of course, is surprised by the question and wonders if the passenger is laughing at him. But he doesn’t think of mocking, however, the question about ducks is more likely a manifestation of Holden Caulfield's perplexity in front of the complexity of the world, rather than an interest in zoology.

This world and oppresses it, and attracts. With people it’s hard, without them it’s unbearable. He is trying to have fun in a nightclub at the hotel, but nothing good comes of it, and the waiter refuses to serve him alcohol as a minor. He goes to the night bar in Greenwich Village, where his older brother D. B., a talented writer who was seduced by the great fees of a screenwriter in Hollywood, liked to be. On the way, he asks a question about ducks to the next taxi driver, again without receiving an intelligible answer. In the bar he meets a friend D. B. with some sailor. This damsel arouses such dislike in him that he quickly leaves the bar and goes on foot to the hotel.

The hotel's elevator wonders if he wants a girl - five dollars for a while, fifteen for a night. Holden agrees “for a while,” but when the girl appears in his room, she does not find the strength to part with her innocence. He wants to chat with her, but she came to work, and as long as the client is not ready to comply, he requires ten dollars from him. He recalls that the contract was about five. She leaves and soon returns with the elevator. Another skirmish ends with the next defeat of the hero.

The next morning, he makes an appointment with Sally Hayes, leaves the inhospitable hotel, hands his bags to the locker and begins the life of a homeless man. In a red hunting hat back to front, bought in New York on that unfortunate day when he forgot fencing equipment in the subway, Holden Caulfield wanders around the cold streets of a big city. A visit to the theater with Sally does not bring him joy. The play seems stupid, the audience admiring the famous actors Lanta, a nightmare. Companion also annoys him more and more.

Soon, as expected, a quarrel occurs. After the performance, Holden and Sally go ice-skating, and then, in the bar, the hero gives vent to feelings overwhelming his tormented soul. Explaining his dislike of everything that surrounds him: “I hate ... Lord, how much I hate all this! And not only school, I hate everything. I hate taxis, buses, where the conductor yells at you to get out of the back platform, I hate to get acquainted with the crowes who call Lantov “angels”, I hate to ride in elevators when I just want to go outside, I hate to measure costumes at Brooks ... "

He is annoyed by his order that Sally does not share his negative attitude to the fact that he is so sick, and most importantly, to school. When he offers to take her car and drive away for two weeks to new places, and she refuses, reasonably reminding that “we, in essence, are still children”, an irreparable happens: Holden utters insulting words, and Sally leaves in tears.

A new meeting - new disappointments. Carl Lews, a student from Princeton, is too focused on his person to show sympathy for Holden, and he, alone, gets drunk, calls Sally, apologizes to her, and then wanders through cold New York and Central Park, near the pond itself with the ducks, drops the record, bought as a gift to Phoebe's younger sister.

Having returned home - and to his relief, having discovered that his parents had left for a visit - he gives Phoebe only fragments. But she is not angry. In general, despite her small years, she perfectly understands the state of her brother and guesses why he returned home prematurely. It is in a conversation with Phoebe Holden who expresses his dream: “I imagine how little kids play in the evening in a huge field in the rye. Thousands of kids, but not a soul, not a single adult, except me ... And my job is to catch the kids so that they don’t fall into the abyss. "

However, Holden is not ready for a meeting with his parents, and, having borrowed money from her sister, which she deferred for Christmas gifts, he goes to his former teacher, Mr. Antolini. Despite the late hour, he accepts it, arranges for the night. As a true mentor, he tries to give him a series of useful tips on how to build relationships with the world around him, but Holden is too tired to accept reasonable sayings. Then suddenly he wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers a teacher who is stroking his forehead by his bed. Suspecting Mr. Antolini of ill intentions, Holden leaves his house and sleeps at Central Station.

However, he soon realizes that he misinterpreted the behavior of the teacher, dumped a fool, and this further enhances his anguish.

Reflecting on how to live further, Holden decides to go somewhere to the West and there, in accordance with a long American tradition, try to start all over again. He sends Phoebe a note telling her of his intention to leave, and asks her to come to the appointed place, because he wants to return the money borrowed from her. But a little sister appears with a suitcase and declares that she is going to the West with her brother. Voluntarily or involuntarily, little Phoebe plays him in front of Holden - she declares that she will not go to school anymore, and in general this life has bothered her. Holden, on the contrary, has to involuntarily take the point of view of common sense, forgetting for the time being his all-denial.He shows prudence and responsibility and convinces the little sister to abandon her intention, assuring her that he will not go anywhere. He leads Phoebe to the zoo, and there she rides on a carousel, and he admires her.