The book is divided into five short stories or novellas, with an authorial preface added in the second edition. There are three major narrators. The first is a young, unnamed officer in the Russian army travelling through the Caucasus mountains. He is documenting his travels for publication later. Maxim Maximovich serves as the second narrator, relaying to his traveling companion stories of his interactions with Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, the main character of the story and the ultimate Byronic hero. The third narrator is Pechorin himself. He narrates through his diaries, which were published along with the unnamed narrator's travel notes after Pechorin's death. Unavailable and arrogant through his own recollections.