A condemned man stands on a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, surrounded by a Federal military unit awaiting his execution.

The condemned man watches a piece of driftwood drift slowly downstream, noticing how sluggish the current appears to move.

The condemned man hears a sharp ticking sound in the silence and realizes it is his own watch.

The condemned man imagines freeing his hands, throwing off the noose, and swimming to safety through the river.

The captain nods to the sergeant, who steps off the plank and triggers the condemned man's drop from the bridge.

Peyton Farquhar is introduced as an Alabama slave owner and devoted secessionist who cannot join the Confederate army.

A gray-clad soldier visits Farquhar's home and reports that Union forces have advanced to the Owl Creek Bridge.

The soldier tells Farquhar that a Union order mandates hanging any civilian caught interfering with the railroad or its bridges.

The same soldier who visited Farquhar is seen riding north after dark, revealed to be a Union scout in disguise.

Part 3 opens with Farquhar plunging through the bridge, revealing he is the condemned man from Part 1.

The rope around Farquhar's neck breaks and he plunges into the river below the bridge.

Farquhar surfaces from the river and spots Federal soldiers on the bridge shouting and firing rifles at him.

Farquhar is swept onto the riverbank by the current and collapses, weeping with joy at his apparent escape.

Farquhar arrives at the gate of his home, bathed in morning sunlight, after traveling through the forest all night.

A stunning blow and blinding white flash end Farquhar's dream — the narrator confirms his body hangs from Owl Creek Bridge.

A condemned man stands on the Owl Creek Bridge in northern Alabama, surrounded by a Federal military unit preparing to carry out his hanging. In a flashback, the reader meets Peyton Farquhar, an Alabama planter and Confederate sympathizer who has been tricked by a Union scout into attempting to sabotage the bridge. Farquhar is caught and hanged for his actions, but his dying mind constructs a vivid escape fantasy in which the rope breaks and he fights his way through enemy fire to the riverbank. He imagines fleeing through the forest all night until he reaches the gate of his home and sees his wife waiting for him. The dream collapses in an instant — a blinding white flash reveals that Farquhar has been hanging from the bridge the entire time, and the narrator confirms his death.

The essential events of Farquhar's betrayal, execution, and death.

A full company of Federal infantry stands at parade rest along the bridge, completely silent and unmoving.

The condemned man is described as roughly 35, dressed as a civilian planter, with a notably kindly expression.

The condemned man stands on a plank held up solely by the sergeant's weight, rigged to drop him.

The condemned man closes his eyes before death and tries to concentrate on his wife and children but cannot.

The ticking of the condemned man's watch grows unbearable — each interval of silence between strokes feels longer and more maddening.

Farquhar's wife fetches water for the visiting gray-clad soldier, who has arrived to speak with her husband.

Farquhar asks the soldier what a civilian might accomplish by slipping past the sentinels to reach the Owl Creek Bridge.

Farquhar regains consciousness after falling and feels the rope tightening around his neck, suffocating him.

Farquhar frees his bound hands underwater and manages to pull the noose from around his neck.

Farquhar briefly considers putting the noose back on to die with dignity before his survival instinct takes over.

Farquhar surfaces and perceives individual trees, the veining of each leaf, and insects on branches with extraordinary clarity.

Farquhar hears the lieutenant ordering a full volley and dives beneath the surface to avoid the gunfire.

A cannon fires from the bridge and the ball flies over Farquhar's head and crashes into the forest.

Farquhar travels through the forest all evening, exhausted and hungry but refusing to stop before reaching his family.

Farquhar looks up and sees unfamiliar stars grouped in strange constellations that seem to carry a threatening significance.

The story opens with a precise, almost military account of the execution — a full company of Federal infantry at parade rest, a plank balanced only by a sergeant's weight, and a condemned civilian struggling to focus on his family before death. In a flashback, Farquhar's wife serves water to the gray-clad scout while Farquhar probes the soldier for details about how a civilian might reach and sabotage the bridge. As Part 3 begins, Farquhar regains consciousness underwater, strips the noose from his neck, and surfaces into a state of heightened, almost surreal sensory awareness. His imagined escape is relentless — diving beneath volleys of gunfire, surviving a cannon blast overhead, and reaching the far bank in exhausted relief. The journey continues through the forest all night, guided by strange stars, as Farquhar presses on toward the family he believes he can still reach.

The detailed mechanics of the hanging, the deception, and the imagined escape.

The condemned man hears a sharp metallic sound piercing the silence around him that he cannot identify or understand.

The condemned man looks down at the swift water twenty feet below the bridge and feels utterly trapped.

Farquhar is revealed as a romantic idealist who believes a civilian can win glory by daring to attack the bridge.

The soldier tells Farquhar that driftwood has been piled beneath the Owl Creek Bridge and could easily be set on fire.

Farquhar smiles as he imagines slipping past the sentinels as a civilian, convinced no one would suspect him of sabotage.

Farquhar sinks to the river bottom and rises toward the surface, desperately thinking he does not wish to be shot.

Farquhar surfaces and feels a violent pounding in his chest as new and overwhelming pain overtakes the sensation of the noose.

A soldier on the bridge takes careful aim; Farquhar stares into the man's gray eye and recalls that gray-eyed men are the keenest marksmen.

A river current catches Farquhar and spins him around, briefly turning him back to face the soldiers behind him.

Underwater, Farquhar feels bullets brushing past him and pulls one free from between his collar and his neck.

Farquhar scrambles to his feet on the riverbank and races into the forest as grapeshot rattles through the air above him.

Farquhar finds a road through the forest leading in the direction of his home and begins to follow it.

Farquhar notices that his neck is swollen and painful and his eyes are congested as he presses on toward home.

Farquhar falls asleep while walking through the forest and awakens to find himself standing at the gate of his home.

The narration shifts to present tense as Farquhar walks up the path and his wife descends the veranda steps to meet him.

The story's tension builds in Part 1 as the condemned man hears an unidentifiable metallic sound and stares helplessly at the water far below, feeling utterly trapped. In Part 2, Farquhar's fatal flaw is laid bare — his romantic idealism convinces him a civilian can outsmart trained soldiers, and the scout's tip about driftwood piled under the bridge gives him a concrete plan. The imagined escape in Part 3 is driven by a series of desperate choices: resisting the urge to die with honor, staring down a gray-eyed sharpshooter, pulling a bullet from his own collar, and scrambling into the forest as grapeshot rains down. Farquhar's journey home grows increasingly dreamlike as physical pain — a swollen neck, congested eyes — begins to intrude on the fantasy. The final shift into present tense and the vision of his wife descending the veranda steps mark the last moments of his dying mind before the story's devastating truth is confirmed.

The key discoveries, decisions, and emotional turning points of Farquhar's story.