Bruno returns home in Berlin to find the servants packing the family's belongings for an unexpected move.

The family arrives at a new house standing alone in a field next to a large wire-fenced enclosure.

Bruno and his sister Gretel see hundreds of men and boys in striped uniforms through Bruno's bedroom window.

Bruno asks his father about the people in striped pajamas, and Father tells him they are not people at all.

Bruno meets a small, sad boy named Shmuel sitting silently on the other side of the wire fence.

Bruno and Shmuel discover they were both born on the exact same day.

Hitler and his companion arrive for dinner at Bruno's Berlin home and announce Father's new military posting.

Shmuel tells Bruno how soldiers forced his family onto a crowded train and separated them upon arrival.

Pavel spills wine on Lieutenant Kotler at a family dinner, and Kotler responds with brutal violence.

Bruno lies to his sister Gretel, claiming the boy he secretly visits at the fence is an imaginary friend.

Bruno's grandmother dies and the family travels back to Berlin to attend her funeral.

Father shaves Bruno's head after both children are discovered to have lice.

Father calls Bruno into his office to inform him he will return to Berlin with his mother.

Shmuel tells Bruno his father has disappeared, and Bruno proposes sneaking into the camp as a final adventure.

Soldiers round up Bruno, Shmuel, and other prisoners and force them to march through the rain.

When Bruno's father is appointed commandant of Auschwitz, nine-year-old Bruno is uprooted from his comfortable Berlin life and moved to a house beside a concentration camp. Confused and bored, Bruno eventually wanders along the fence and befriends a Jewish boy his own age named Shmuel. The two develop a close friendship despite being separated by barbed wire, sharing conversations and secretly exchanged food over many months. After Bruno's family decides to send him back to Berlin, he arranges one final adventure by disguising himself in striped pajamas to enter the camp and help Shmuel search for his missing father. The plan ends in catastrophe when soldiers force the two boys into a sealed gas chamber, where they perish together holding hands. Bruno's father later discovers the truth about his son's fate, and the novel closes with the family shattered.

The essential events of Bruno's journey from Berlin to Auschwitz and his tragic end.

Bruno's mother tells him the family must leave Berlin because Father has received an important new assignment.

Bruno enters his father's forbidden office to complain about the move, and Father firmly dismisses his concerns.

Bruno asks the family maid Maria whether she is as unhappy with the new house as he is.

Maria tells Bruno how Father once saved her family from poverty and paid for her mother's funeral.

Bruno asks Lieutenant Kotler for help with a tire swing, and Kotler curtly orders Pavel to assist instead.

Pavel carries Bruno to the kitchen and cleans and bandages his wound after Bruno falls from the swing.

Bruno's mother returns home and tells Father she treated Bruno's wound, taking credit for Pavel's medical care.

Father hires a tutor named Herr Liszt for Bruno and Gretel, insisting on history and geography over art.

Bruno sets out to explore the perimeter of the barbed-wire fence for the first time.

Bruno regularly sneaks bread and cheese to Shmuel during their secret meetings at the fence over several weeks.

Lieutenant Kotler brings Shmuel to the house to polish glasses, and Bruno secretly gives him food.

Bruno denies knowing Shmuel when Lieutenant Kotler confronts them, and later feels deep shame for his cowardice.

Shmuel returns to the fence covered in bruises; Bruno apologizes sincerely, and they shake hands for the first time.

Bruno's mother pressures Father to let her take the children back to Berlin, and Father eventually agrees.

Bruno's father finds the gap beneath the wire fence and understands what happened to his missing son.

From the moment Bruno's mother explains the unexpected move, the daily routines of life near Auschwitz reveal themselves through small but significant moments. Bruno's conversations with the maid Maria shed light on his father's contradictory nature, while incidents like Pavel tending Bruno's wound expose the dangerous realities facing Jewish prisoners nearby. The arrival of a strict tutor and Bruno's first solo explorations along the fence establish the restless, curious boy who will seek friendship in the unlikeliest of places. Regular secret meetings with Shmuel cement their bond, but a confrontation in the family kitchen forces Bruno to choose between friendship and self-preservation — a choice he bitterly regrets. Domestic tensions simmer as Bruno's mother grows increasingly unhappy, eventually winning the argument to leave Auschwitz with the children. The final revelation comes when Bruno's father traces his son's last steps to a gap beneath the wire fence.

The supporting scenes that shaped Bruno's world, relationships, and daily life near Auschwitz.

Bruno looks out his new bedroom window alone and sees something that makes him feel cold and deeply unsafe.

Bruno notices his family's comfortable train running alongside a packed, miserable train heading in the same direction.

Bruno's grandmother storms out of a family celebration after condemning her son's military promotion as shameful.

Bruno wonders for the first time who decided which people wear crisp uniforms and which wear striped pajamas.

Shmuel informs Bruno that the land on his side of the fence is Poland, not Germany.

Bruno blurts out that Germany is superior to Poland and immediately regrets it, fearing he has offended Shmuel.

Bruno overhears his parents argue through the night about whether Father should obey Hitler's orders to move.

Shmuel firmly tells Bruno there are no good soldiers, nearly causing the first serious argument between them.

Bruno notices Shmuel's unnaturally thin, skeleton-like hands and is struck for the first time by how unhealthy his friend looks.

Gretel explains to Bruno that the people inside the fence are Jews and his family is called the Opposite.

Lieutenant Kotler is transferred away from the camp after his father's opposition to Hitler's regime is exposed.

Bruno crosses under the wire fence wearing striped pajamas; Shmuel observes that the two boys now look exactly the same.

Bruno enters the camp and is shocked to find only starving, frightened people instead of the scene he imagined.

Bruno takes Shmuel's hand and declares him his best friend for life as the sealed room goes dark.

Bruno's father, overcome by grief after learning his son's fate, is removed from his command at Auschwitz.

From Bruno's first unsettling glimpse through his bedroom window to his grandmother's fierce condemnation of his father's role, this pool captures the moments of recognition and near-understanding scattered across the novel. Bruno slowly pieces together the world around him through telling observations — noticing the contrast between two trains, wondering who decides which people wear uniforms — yet his understanding remains frustratingly incomplete. Key conversations with Shmuel expose the gulf between their lives, while an overheard parental argument and the exposure of Kotler's family history add layers of adult complexity to the story. Gretel's blunt explanation of Jews as 'the Opposite' represents one of Bruno's clearest moments of near-awakening, yet the full horror still escapes him. The pool reaches its climax as Bruno crosses the fence, confronts the camp's true conditions, and declares his undying friendship to Shmuel in their final moments together.

The key discoveries, moral awakenings, and turning points that define the novel's emotional arc.