Summary

Chapter 1: The book opens in late summer, 1916. An unnamed narrator, who readers later learn is Frederic Henry, begins to speak in the past tense about his experiences working as a medic in World War I. He begins to describe the scenery of Italy, where he lives and works as an ambulance driver. He can see signs of the fighting in the mountains nearby. Troops pass through the area, and the narrator describes what the marching looks like through different seasons. The winter is especially rainy and there is a deadly outbreak of cholera. The narrator points out that 7,000 men in the Italian Army will die from cholera before the end of World War I.

Chapter 2: The narrator and some others move across the river to a different town called Gorizia. There are signs of war in the town and a nearby forest has been annihilated...