Lieutenant Frederic Henry is
a young American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army during
World War I. At the beginning of the novel, the war is winding down with
the onset of winter, and Henry arranges to tour Italy. The following
spring, upon his return to the front, Henry meets Catherine Barkley,
an English nurse’s aide at the nearby British hospital and the love
interest of his friend Rinaldi. Rinaldi, however, quickly fades
from the picture as Catherine and Henry become involved in an elaborate
game of seduction. Grieving the recent death of her fiancé, Catherine
longs for love so deeply that she will settle for the illusion of
it. Her passion, even though pretended, wakens a desire for emotional
interaction in Henry, whom the war has left coolly detached and
numb.
When Henry is wounded on the battlefield, he is brought
to a hospital in Milan to recover. Several doctors recommend that
he stay in bed for six months and then undergo a necessary operation on
his knee. Unable to accept such a long period of recovery, Henry finds
a bold, garrulous surgeon named Dr. Valentini who agrees to operate
immediately. Henry learns happily that Catherine has been transferred
to Milan and begins his recuperation under her care. During the
following months, his relationship with Catherine intensifies. No
longer simply a game in which they exchange empty promises and playful
kisses, their love becomes powerful and real. As the lines between
scripted and genuine emotions begin to blur, Henry and Catherine
become tangled in their love for each other.
Once Henry’s damaged leg has healed, the army grants him
three weeks convalescence leave, after which he is scheduled to
return to the front. He tries to plan a trip with Catherine, who
reveals to him that she is pregnant. The following day, Henry is
diagnosed with jaundice, and Miss Van Campen, the superintendent
of the hospital, accuses him of bringing the disease on himself
through excessive drinking. Believing Henry’s illness to be an attempt
to avoid his duty as a serviceman, Miss Van Campen has Henry’s leave
revoked, and he is sent to the front once the jaundice has cleared.
As they part, Catherine and Henry pledge their mutual devotion.
Henry travels to the front, where Italian forces are losing
ground and manpower daily. Soon after Henry’s arrival, a bombardment begins.
When word comes that German troops are breaking through the Italian
lines, the Allied forces prepare to retreat. Henry leads his team
of ambulance drivers into the great column of evacuating troops.
The men pick up two engineering sergeants and two frightened young
girls on their way. Henry and his drivers then decide to leave the
column and take secondary roads, which they assume will be faster.
When one of their vehicles bogs down in the mud, Henry orders the
two engineers to help in the effort to free the vehicle. When they
refuse, he shoots one of them. The drivers continue in the other
trucks until they get stuck again. They send off the young girls
and continue on foot toward Udine. As they march, one of the drivers
is shot dead by the easily frightened rear guard of the Italian
army. Another driver marches off to surrender himself, while Henry
and the remaining driver seek refuge at a farmhouse. When they rejoin
the retreat the following day, chaos has broken out: soldiers, angered
by the Italian defeat, pull commanding officers from the melee and
execute them on sight. The battle police seize Henry, who, at a
crucial moment, breaks away and dives into the river. After swimming
a safe distance downstream, Henry boards a train bound for Milan.
He hides beneath a tarp that covers stockpiled artillery, thinking
that his obligations to the war effort are over and dreaming of
his return to Catherine.
Henry reunites with Catherine in the town of Stresa. From
there, the two escape to safety in Switzerland, rowing all night
in a tiny borrowed boat. They settle happily in a lovely alpine
town called Montreux and agree to put the war behind them forever.
Although Henry is sometimes plagued by guilt for abandoning the
men on the front, the two succeed in living a beautiful, peaceful
life. When spring arrives, the couple moves to Lausanne so that
they can be closer to the hospital. Early one morning, Catherine
goes into labor. The delivery is exceptionally painful and complicated.
Catherine delivers a stillborn baby boy and, later that night, dies
of a hemorrhage. Henry stays at her side until she is gone. He attempts
to say goodbye but cannot. He walks back to his hotel in the rain.
