Colonel undergoes a medical examination and secretly takes medication to pass, despite the surgeon's warnings about his failing heart.

Colonel and Jackson drive toward Venice, with the colonel pointing out WWI battlefields and landmarks he recognizes along the route.

Colonel arrives in Venice, hires a motor launch through the canals, and promises the boatman a replacement engine.

Colonel checks into the Gritti Hotel and shares a warm drink with the gran maestro, joking about their secret Order.

Colonel arrives at Harry's Bar and reunites with Renata as she enters, described as shining in her youth and beauty.

Colonel and Renata exchange declarations of love over martinis, both openly acknowledging the reality of his approaching death.

Renata offers her valuable emeralds to the colonel, who reluctantly agrees to carry them temporarily in his pockets.

Colonel and Renata go to his hotel room overlooking the Grand Canal and share a long, intense kiss.

Colonel and Renata dine together at the Gritti, and he recounts the liberation of Paris and criticizes Allied commanders.

Renata's commissioned portrait of herself is delivered to the colonel and Renata at their dinner table at the Gritti.

Colonel and Renata take a late-night gondola ride through Venice's canals as a strong wind blows across the lagoon.

Colonel and Renata say their final farewell at the edge of the lagoon before he departs for the duck hunt.

During the duck hunt, the colonel shoots ducks from his blind and recalls fighting two sailors who once catcalled Renata.

Alvarito reveals that the hostile boatman despises Allied military uniforms because his family was attacked by Moroccan soldiers during the war.

Colonel dies of heart failure in the backseat of Jackson's car after recalling Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's famous dying words.

Colonel Richard Cantwell, a decorated but demoted American officer with a failing heart, travels to Venice knowing he is dying and reunites with his young lover, Contessa Renata. He checks into the Gritti Hotel, where staff greet him as an old friend, before meeting Renata at Harry's Bar for the first time that visit. Over three days they drink, dine, and spend intimate time together in his hotel room, where he recounts his wartime experiences and she gifts him her portrait. After a final farewell at the edge of the lagoon, the colonel joins a duck hunt where he learns the hostile boatman's resentment stems from Allied soldiers attacking his family during the war. The colonel suffers fatal heart attacks in the backseat of Jackson's car on the road to Trieste, dying as he quotes Stonewall Jackson's last words.

The colonel's final days: love, war, and death in Venice.

Colonel revisits Fossalta, where he was badly wounded decades earlier, and buries money in the soil as a symbolic gesture.

Colonel and Jackson stop at a lagoon viewpoint where the colonel explains the historical origins of Venice to his driver.

Colonel enters a Venice bar, confronts a rude Milanese businessman who stares at him, then jokes warmly with the anarchist bartender.

Hotel waiter Arnaldo brings gin to the colonel's room and attempts to locate Renata by telephone on his behalf.

Colonel learns that the Americans have left Harry's Bar and prepares to walk over to meet Renata there.

Colonel walks to Harry's Bar through Venice's cold streets, carefully monitoring his physical pain and a persistent buzzing in his head.

Colonel and Renata pause before a jewelry shop window, and he promises to buy her a piece she admires.

Colonel wakes before dawn in his hotel room and speaks aloud to Renata's portrait about the men lost under his command.

Colonel attempts to store Renata's emeralds in the hotel safe but must keep them awkwardly in his own pocket.

Colonel walks through Venice toward the market, noticing two young men he suspects of targeting and following him through the streets.

Colonel buys sausage and meat at the Venetian market and eats freshly shucked clams at a vendor's stall.

Colonel returns to the Gritti and suffers a sudden, severe heart pain, taking a double dose of his medicine.

Colonel and Renata share an elaborate breakfast at the Gritti and fantasize together about traveling across America to see its trees.

Jackson arrives at the Gritti Hotel to collect the colonel's luggage and portrait for the journey to Trieste.

Colonel drops Alvarito at his grand villa and instructs him to ensure Renata collects the portrait if anything unforeseen happens.

The colonel's journey to Venice takes him past Fossalta, where he was once badly wounded, prompting a private ritual of burying money in the soil before he explains the city's origins to his driver Jackson. Arriving in the city, he navigates its bars, hotels, and markets with the ease of a returning local, sharing drinks with the anarchist bartender and hunting for gifts among the market stalls. His evenings revolve around waiting for and meeting Renata, with quiet hotel room moments, early morning conversations addressed to her portrait, and shared fantasies about a future neither expects to have. The precariousness of his health intrudes constantly, from carrying Renata's emeralds because the hotel safe is unavailable to suffering a sudden heart attack on a morning walk and doubling his medication. The pool closes with the colonel's departure preparations, as Jackson collects the luggage and the colonel leaves final instructions with Alvarito before the fatal journey.

Venice through the colonel's eyes: memory, ritual, and departure.

Colonel and the hostile boatman struggle to break through frozen lagoon ice in darkness to reach the duck-shooting blind.

Colonel directs Jackson toward Treviso and insists he needs no map across territory he knows from wartime memory.

Colonel reflects on fighting as a young Italian Army lieutenant who stood waist-deep in water defending the road to Venice in WWI.

Colonel dismisses Jackson for the evening and privately reflects that he has been too harsh, wishing he could be kinder.

Count Andrea points out Renata entering Harry's Bar and encourages the colonel to take her to their usual corner table.

Renata directly acknowledges to the colonel that she is in love with a man much older than herself who is dying.

Colonel begins referring to Renata as "Daughter" and privately declares her his last, true, and only love.

Renata speaks of marriage and children in the colonel's hotel room, though both understand his illness makes such plans impossible.

Colonel tells Renata about his ambitious first wife who published his secrets, dismissing her as though she were long dead.

With Renata asleep, the colonel silently continues his war story, reliving in his mind the catastrophic loss of his men.

Colonel recounts the disastrous assault ordered by superiors in which three of his battalion commanders died on the first day.

Colonel and Renata share a kiss in a narrow blind alley after she buys jewelry; she does not care who sees.

Alone in the duck blind, the colonel concludes that the only thing he can offer Renata is love, which he calls worthless.

Colonel orders Jackson onto an unexpected detour, writes a final note and hands it over, then is struck by severe heart pains.

Jackson reads the colonel's written instructions to return the portrait and shotguns to Renata, their rightful owner, and agrees.

The novel's deepest turning points begin even before the colonel reaches Venice, as the tense duck hunt and a wartime memory-laden drive reveal how completely his identity is shaped by conflict and its aftermath. In Venice, the colonel's reunion with Renata accelerates a series of emotional revelations: she admits she loves a dying man, he names her his last true love, and they construct impossible fantasies of marriage and children. In private hotel room conversations, the colonel confronts old wounds, dismissing his failed first marriage with bitter finality and then reliving battle losses so vividly that he continues his war story in silence even after Renata falls asleep. The duck hunt returns him to familiar violence but closes with a moment of radical empathy, as he finally understands that the boatman's hostility comes from genuine grief over what Allied soldiers did to his family. A detour, a handwritten note, and repeated heart pains bring the colonel to his end, with Jackson's discovery of the note confirming that Renata was always the rightful owner of what little the colonel had left to give.