Rinaldi and a Major from their group come to visit Henry the night before he moves to a better hospital in Milan. Henry is still half-delirious, and they drink profusely. After a confused conversation, Henry falls into a drunken sleep. The next day, he is taken on a train to Milan.
Book II, Chapters 13-17
At Milan, Frederic Henry is taken to the American hospital. A young, pretty nurse named Miss Gage makes his bed and takes his temperature. The head nurse, Miss Van Campen, irritates Henry by not allowing him to have wine. Henry pays some Italians to sneak wine into his room with the evening papers.
In the morning, Miss Gage tells Henry that Miss Barkley has come to work at the hospital--she claims not to like her, but Henry tells her she will learn to like her. The porter brings a barber to shave Henry, but the barber mistakes Henry for an Austrian soldier and threatens to cut his throat. After the barber and the porter leave, Miss Barkley comes in, and Henry realizes he is in love with her. He pulls her down into the bed with him, and they make love for the first time.
Henry goes through a round of doctors who remove some of the shrapnel from his leg. The doctors seem incompetent, and tell Henry he will have to wait six months for an operation if he wants to keep his leg. He cannot stand the thought of spending six months in bed, and asks for another opinion; the house doctor says he will send for Dr. Valentini. When Dr. Valentini comes, he is cheerful, energetic, and competent and says he will perform the operation in the morning.Catherine spends the night in Henry's room, and they see a bat. Catherine prepares him for the operation, and warns him not to talk about their affair while under the anaesthetic.
After the operation, Henry is very sick. As he recovers, three other patients come to the hospital--a boy from Georgia with malaria, a boy from New York with malaria and jaundice, and a boy who tried to unscrew the fuse cap from an explosive shell for a souvenir. Henry develops an appreciation for Helen Ferguson, who helps him pass notes to Catherine while she is on duty. Catherine continues to stay with Henry every night, but Henry and Miss Gage finally convince her to take three nights off of night duty--Miss Van Campen has commented that Henry always sleeps till noon.
Book II, Chapters 18-24
That summer Henry learns to walk on crutches, and he and Catherine enjoy Milan. They befriend the headwaiter at a restaurant called the Gran Italia, and Catherine continues to see Henry every night. They discuss marriage, but Catherine remains opposed to the idea for the time being. They pretend to be married instead. Catherine tells Henry that her love for him has become her religion.
When not with Catherine, Henry spends time with a soldier named Ettore Moretti, an Italian from San Francisco who is very proud of his war medals. Ettore is extremely boastful about his military prowess, and Catherine finds him annoying and dull. One night Henry and Catherine lie in bed listening to the rain, and Catherine asks Henry if he will always love her. She says she is afraid of the rain, and begins to cry.
Henry and Catherine go to the races with Helen Ferguson, whom Henry now calls "Fergie," and the boy who tried to unscrew the nose cap on the shrapnel shell. They bet on a horse backed by a racing expert and former criminal named Mr. Myers; they win, but Catherine feels dissatisfied, so they pick a horse for the next race on their own. Even though they lose, Catherine feels much better.
By September, Henry's leg is nearly healed. He receives some leave time from the hospital, and Catherine tells him she will arrange to go with him. She then gives him a piece of startling news: she is six months pregnant. Catherine worries that Henry feels trapped, and promises not to make trouble for him, but he tells her he feels cheerful and thinks she is wonderful. Catherine talks about the obstacles they will face, and mentions the old quote about how the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one. She says that, in reality, the brave man dies perhaps two thousand deaths in his imagination--he simply does not mention them.
The next morning it begins to rain, and Henry is diagnosed with jaundice. Miss Van Campen finds empty liquor bottles in Henry's room, and accuses him of producing jaundice through alcoholism to avoid being sent back to the front. Miss Gage helps Henry clear things up, but in the end he loses his leave time.
Henry prepares to travel back to the front. He buys a new pistol, and takes Catherine to a hotel. The hotel makes Catherine feel like a prostitute, but before the night is over they feel at home there. Before midnight, they walk downstairs and Henry calls a carriage for Catherine. They have a brief good-bye, and Henry boards the crowded train that will take him back to the war.
Book III, Chapters 25-28
After returning to Gorizia, Henry has a talk with the major about the war--it was a bad year, the major says; Henry was lucky to get hit when he did. Henry then goes to find Rinaldi; while he waits for his friend, he thinks about Catherine. Rinaldi comes into the room and is glad to see Henry; concerned, he examines Henry's wounded knee. He says that he has become a skilled surgeon from the constant work with the wounded, but now that the fighting has died down temporarily he has a frustrating lack of work. They talk about Catherine, and at dinner the officers tease the priest.
After dinner, Henry goes to talk with the priest. The priest thinks the war will end soon, but Henry remains skeptical. After the priest leaves, Henry goes to sleep; he wakes when Rinaldi comes back, but quickly falls asleep again.
The next morning, he travels to the Bainsizza area, and sees the damage caused by the war: the whole village is destroyed. Henry meets a man named Gino, and they discuss the fighting. Gino says the summer's losses were not in vain, and Henry falls silent--he says words like those embarrass him. He says that the names of villages and the numbers of streets have more meaning than words like sacred and glorious.That night, the rain comes down hard, and the Croatians begin a bombardment. In the morning, the Italians learn that the attacking forces include Germans, and they become very afraid--they have had little contact with the Germans in the war so far, and prefer to keep it that way. The next night, the Italian line has been broken, and the Italian forces begin a large-scale retreat.
As the forces slowly move out, Henry returns to the villa, but finds it empty; Rinaldi is gone with the hospital. Henry finds the drivers under his command, including Piani, Bonello, and Aymo. Before leaving in the morning, Henry gets a good night's sleep.
They drive out slowly through the town, in an endless line of soldiers and vehicles. Henry takes a turn sleeping, and shortly after he wakes, the column stalls. He finds that Bonello has given two engineer sergeants a ride, and Aymo has two girls in his car. Exhausted, Henry falls asleep again, and dreams of Catherine.That night, columns of peasants join the retreating army. In the early morning Henry and his men stop briefly at a farmhouse, eating a large breakfast. Soon, they continue slowly on their way, rejoining the line of trucks and soldiers.
Book III, Chapters 29-32
Aymo's car gets stuck in the soft ground; the men are forced to cut brush hurriedly to place under the tires for traction. Henry orders the two engineer sergeants riding with Bonello to help; afraid of being overtaken by the enemy, they refuse, and try to leave. Henry draws his gun and shoots one of them, but the other escapes. Bonello takes Henry's pistol and kills the wounded sergeant.
They begin to cut branches and twigs; in the end, they are unable to save the car. Henry gives some money to the two girls travelling with Aymo and encourages them to go down to a nearby village, Aymo gets in Henry's vehicle, and they set out, now cut off from the main column.
Crossing a bridge, Henry sees a nearby car full of German soldiers. As they travel, they begin to notice more and more signs of German occupation, and they worry that they have been completely cut off from Italian-controlled land. They proceed with caution; a sudden burst of gunfire kills Aymo. They realize he was shot by the Italian rear guard--the Italians are ahead, but because the rear guard is afraid, they are almost as dangerous as the Germans.
Fearing death, Bonello leaves in hopes of being taken prisoner. The men hide in a barn that night, and in the morning they rejoin the Italians. The enlisted men become furious with the officers, and Piani is afraid they will try to kill Henry. Suddenly, two men (battle police) seize hold of Henry. They seize Henry because he is a foreigner, and in the chaos of the retreat they intend to shoot him for a spy. When they look away for a moment, Henry dives into the river and swims away.
After floating in the river for what seems like a very long time, Henry climbs out, removes the stars from his shirt, and counts his money. He crosses the Venetian plain that day, then jumps aboard a military train that evening, hiding under a canvas with guns.
Lying under the canvas, Henry thinks about the army, about the war, and about Catherine. He realizes that he will be pronounced dead, and assumes he will never see Rinaldi again. Rinaldi has been concerned he will die of syphilis, and Henry worries for him. Exhausted and hungry, he imagines finding Catherine and going away with her to a safe place.
Book V, Chapters 38-41
That fall, Henry and Catherine live in a brown wooden house on the side of a mountain. They enjoy the company of Mr. and Mrs. Guttingen, who live downstairs, and they remain very happy together; sometimes they walk down the mountain path in Montreux. One day Catherine gets her hair done in Montreux, and afterwards they go to have a beer--Catherine thinks beer is good for the baby, because it will keep it small; she is worried about the baby's size because the doctor has said she has a narrow pelvis. They talk again about getting married, but Catherine wants to wait until after the baby is born when she will be thin again.
Three days before Christmas, the snow comes. Catherine asks Henry if he feels restless, and he says no, though he does wonder about his friends on the front, such as Rinaldi and the priest.
Henry decides to grow a beard and by mid-January, he has one. Through January and February he and Catherine remain very happy; in March they move into town to be near the hospital. They stay in a hotel there for three weeks; Catherine buys baby clothes, Henry works out in the gym, and they both feel that the baby will arrive soon.
Finally, around three o'clock one morning, Catherine goes into labor. They go to the hospital, where Catherine is given a nightgown and a room. She encourages Henry to go out for breakfast, and he does, talking to the old man who serves him. When he returns to the hospital, he finds that Catherine has been taken to the delivery room. He goes in to see her; the doctor stands by, and Catherine takes an anaesthetic gas when her contractions become very painful. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Henry goes out for lunch.
He goes back to the hospital; Catherine is now intoxicated from the gas. The doctor thinks her pelvis is too narrow to allow the baby to pass through, and advises a Caesarian section. Catherine suffers unbearable pain and pleads for more gas. Finally they wheel her out on a stretcher to perform the operation. Henry watches the rain outside.
Soon the doctor comes out and takes Henry to see the baby, a boy. Henry has no feeling for the child. He then goes to see Catherine, and at first worries that she is dead. When she asks him about their son, he tells her he was fine, and the nurse gives him a quizzical look. Ushering him outside, the nurse tells him that the boy is not fine--he strangled on the umbilical cord, and never began to breathe.
He goes out for dinner, and when he returns the nurse tells him that Catherine is hemorrhaging. He is filled with terror that she will die. When he is allowed to see her, she tells him she will die, and asks him not to say the same things to other girls. Henry goes into the hallway while they try to treat Catherine, but nothing works; finally, he goes back into the room and stays with her until she dies.
The doctor offers to drive him back to the hotel, but Henry declines. He goes back into the room and tries to say good-bye to Catherine, but says that it was like saying good-bye to a statue. He leaves the hospital and walks back to his hotel in the rain
CHARACTERS’ PROFILE
Frederic Henry - The novel's protagonist. A young American ambulance driver in the Italian army during the First World War, Henry is disciplined and courageous, but feels detached from life. When introduced to Catherine Barkley, Henry discovers a capacity for love he had not known he possessed, and begins a process of development that culminates with his desertion of the Italian army. Throughout the novel, the Italian soldiers under Henry's command call him "Tenente"--the Italian word for "lieutenant."
Catherine Barkley - An English nurse who falls in love with Frederic Henry. Catherine's fiancee was killed in the battle of the Somme before she met Henry. Catherine has cast aside conventional social values, and lives according to her own values, devoting herself wholly to her love for Henry. Her long, beautiful hair is her most distinctive physical feature.
Rinaldi - Frederic's friend, an Italian surgeon. Mischievous and wry, Rinaldi is nevertheless a passionate and skilled doctor. Rinaldi makes a practice of always being in love with a beautiful woman, and at the beginning of the novel is attracted to Catherine Barkley; Rinaldi's infatuation causes him to introduce Frederic and Catherine to one another.
Helen Ferguson - A friend of Catherine's. Though she remains fond of the lovers and helps them, Helen is much more committed to social convention than Henry and Catherine; she vocally disapproves of their "immoral" love affair.
Miss Gage - An American nurse. Miss Gage becomes a friend to both Catherine and Henry--in fact, she may be in love with Henry. Unlike Helen Ferguson, she sets aside conventional social values to support their love affair.
Miss Van Campen - The superintendent of nurses at the American hospital where Catherine works. Miss Van Campen is strict, cold, and unlikable; she is obsessed with rules and regulations and has no patience for or interest in individual feelings.
Dr. Valentini - An Italian surgeon who comes to the American hospital. Self-assured and confident, Dr. Valentini is also a highly talented surgeon. Frederic Henry takes an immediate liking to him.
Count Greffi - A spry ninety-four year old nobleman. Henry knows Count Greffi from his time in Stresa, and the two play billiards together toward the end of the novel. Despite his advanced age, the count is intelligent, disciplined, and fully committed to life.