Senator Lister Ames created the Rosewater Foundation to help descendants of the Rosewater family avoid paying taxes on the family estate. A legal firm in New York operates the foundation and provides an annual salary to Eliot Ames, the senator’s son.
Eliot is a WWII veteran and a volunteer firefighter who traveled across the US before arriving in Rosewater county. Traumatized by his experiences in the war, Eliot devotes himself to the aid of the underprivileged. However, his alcoholism and eccentric behavior convince those around him that he is mentally ill. His attempts to be philanthropic cause strain within his family, and Eliot is driven to a mental collapse. He is confined to a mental hospital for a year with no memory of his behavior.
The only way to remove a sitting president of the Rosewater Foundation is if he is proven insane. A lawyer and distant Rosewater cousin named Norman Mushari wishes to manipulate this perception and declare Eliot insane and take possession of the fortune. Eliot believes the only way to save the foundation is if he finds an heir. In the hospital, he is visited by his lawyer, his father, and science fiction author Kilgore Trout. Eliot instructs his lawyer to will the Rosewater fortune to the 57 children whom (according to their mothers) he fathered, thwarting Mushari’s plans.
Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater follows Eliot Rosewater, a man born into immeasurable wealth who makes it his life's goal to use his money to help improve the lives of the poor. Using crude and straight-to-the-point phrases such as "Goddamn it, you've got to be kind," and "Don't kill yourself," he distributes small amounts of money to those in need. Eventually, Eliot's father, the elderly senator Lister Rosewater, becomes infuriated and obsessed with his son's insistence on helping those whom he (Lister) considers to be inferior.
Meanwhile, a sneaky and untrustworthy lawyer named Norman Mushari hatches a plot to take advantage of Eliot's apparent insanity in order to pass the fortune on to the next Rosewater heir, while, of course, collecting half of the package for himself.
When an onslaught of women claim to have mothered Eliot's illegitimate children, and in a stroke of insanity, or charity, Eliot accepts the claim and provides each child with the full rights to his inheritance. The novel ends questioning whether or not Eliot's repeated charity even helps his clients in the slightest.
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