Summary:
             The "Catcher and the Rye" is not the kind of story with a meaningful story line, that is, knowing only that would indicate little on what it is about. The events told in the story, seem to unfold as flashbacks. We can sense a chronological order of events in Holden Caufield's story, although the order does not matter as much as acknowledging each event as its own story. Be what may, here is what was perceived as the story line.
             Holden Caufield was telling his story (to the readers, or to some people with a psychoanalyst guy) to the point where he was sixteen years old. We learn bluntly of his failure in most of his subjects at his boarding school otherwise known as Pencey Prep, in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. Due to this failure, he was "kicked" out of the school, in the sense that he can still choose to remain at the school for the remaining days until Christmas vacation begins. He went to New York City before the Christmas vacation started however.
             A lot of events occurred in New York City, such as his encounter with three woman in a bar; the two cabdrivers; the case with Ernie (a pianist in a bar); him meeting a prostitute; Mr.Antolini's flirty pass at him; his mention of people he cares about (for e.g., his sister Phoebe Caufield, Jane Gallagher, Allie Caufield). Personally, there is not much reason to describe them all.
             Because these events do not donate much to the story line, we can therefore take up to the point where he decided to see his sister Phoebe (maybe to search for someone to relieve him of his loneliness). At that moment, he came up with a solution, that is, to pretend to be a deaf-mute (the idea was just appealing in the sense that he would not need to communicate with any "phony" people), and live in a cabin out in the west, near the woods.
             Presumably because of his sister, who also wanted to run away with him, he decided that it was probably best to stay with ...