Billy boards a plane 25 years after the destruction of Dresden. The plane is set to carry him and 30 other optometrists to a convention in Canada. His father-in-law Lionel is on board. Though fully aware that the plane will crash, Billy tells no one. A barbershop quartet entertains the passengers with rude, insulting songs about Polish people. Lionel is delighted with the entertainment and even recommends other xenophobic songs they could sing. The plane crashes in Vermont during the flight, and every person on board is killed except Billy and the co-pilot. The first people on the scene of the crash are Austrian ski instructors who move from victim to victim searching for survivors. Billy waits until one arrives near him and then whispers the words “Slaughterhouse-Five” in German. Billy is taken to a nearby hospital where he undergoes brain surgery. He spends two days in a coma, during which time he has a number of dreams.

In Dresden in 1945, Billy and Edgar Derby are told to collect food for the other prisoners. They are accompanied by a 16-year-old German named Werner Gluck. Werner is a distant cousin of Billy’s, but they never realize this.