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The background of the Passover story is that the people of God are in slavery, being oppressed in Egypt.  The salvation of the world is at risk.  In response, God raises up Moses and Aaron to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go, and then sends plague after plague to convince Pharaoh, but to no avail.  Finally, in Exodus 12, comes the 10th plague.  Let’s read Exodus 12:1-14 -

NIV Exodus 12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,  ² "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.  ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.  ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.  ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.  ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.  ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.  ⁹ Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire-- head, legs and inner parts.  ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.  ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.  ¹² "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn-- both men and animals-- and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.  ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.  ¹⁴ "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD-- a lasting ordinance.

Let’s continue in 29-32:

²⁹ At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.  ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.  ³¹ During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.  ³² Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me." 

So why is this Passover story so central?  To answer that, I want to answer three questions - What was the significance of the Passover to the people who originally experienced it?  What is its place in the larger salvation story?  And what is its significance to us today?