In the midwestern town of Midland City, Indiana, wealthy car dealer and widower Dwayne Hoover exists on the rim of insanity—but it will take an obscure and impoverished science fiction writer named Kilgore Trout to push Dwayne over the edge. 

After being invited to the Midland City Arts Festival as their guest of honor, Trout debates whether to accept. Once he decides to go, he first hitchhikes to New York City to find copies of his novels. Trout hates his own books to much that he keeps none at home. He intends to embarrass the organizers and attendees of the festival by reading his lowbrow stories. 

After being abducted, beaten, and robbed in New York, Trout hitchhikes his way to Midland City. All the while, Hoover grows more unstable. He becomes argumentative, insulting, and isolated. Filthy and haggard, Trout arrives at the Midland City Holiday Inn—also owned by Hoover—and takes a seat in the lounge where pretentious guests of the festival clash with a few of the locals. Ignoring all of this, Hoover sits alone in a corner lost in his own deranged thoughts and ignoring his estranged homosexual son, Bunny, the lounge piano player.

When the bartender turns on the black lights in the lounge, his jacket glows a brilliant white, as does the waitress’s outfit—and Kilgore Trout’s shirt. Beguiled by this, Hoover approaches Trout, resting his chin on the writer’s shoulder and demanding the answer to life. He snatches up a copy of Trout’s novel, Now It Can Be Told, and speed reads it on the spot. After which, all hell breaks loose. 

Throughout the story, told in third-person omniscient, Vonnegut observes the events with his trademark razor wit and dry humor, reminding the reader that he is the creator of this story, explaining some of his decisions, and veering off on hilarious tangents.

The above summary is about one-fifth of what happens in this surreal satire that addresses themes of sex, pollution, racism, mental health, desperation, success, and hypocrisy complete with illustrations drawn by the author.