Valera kills a German soldier by striking him with a stolen motorcycle headlamp after a wartime race.

Reno rides her Moto Valera across Nevada toward the salt flats, reflecting on her past life.

Reno crashes her Moto Valera at the salt flats when a wind gust topples her motorcycle during the race.

Valera rides a motorcycle for the first time in Rome, feeling completely transformed by the experience.

Reno moves to New York City and befriends Giddle, a lonely waitress who often tells false stories.

Reno meets Thurman, Nadine, and a nameless stranger at a bar, ending the night kissing him on a rooftop.

Reno gets a job at Bowery Film and learns that Sandro Valera has been asking about her.

Sandro and Reno go on a first date and Sandro rescues a drowning man from the Hudson River.

Reno breaks the women's land speed record driving the Spirit of Italy for the Moto Valera team.

Sandro shoots a teenage mugger in the hand and decides he and Reno should travel to Italy together.

Reno catches Sandro kissing his cousin Talia against a wall near the Valera factory.

Gianni drives Reno away from the Valera villa toward Rome in the rain.

A massive labor rights march in Rome turns into a violent riot with tear gas and gunfire.

The Red Brigade kills Roberto Valera after negotiations with the family collapse.

Sandro returns to Italy permanently after Roberto's death, leaving Reno completely alone in New York.

This pool follows the central spine of The Flamethrowers, beginning with Valera's wartime motorcycle exploits and tracing Reno's journey from Nevada to New York City and beyond. Reno crashes at the salt flats during a speed race, then builds a romantic relationship with Sandro Valera, the heir to the very motorcycle company that shaped her life. After Sandro shoots a teenage mugger, the two travel to Italy, where Reno discovers Sandro's betrayal with his cousin Talia near the family factory. Reno flees to Rome with a revolutionary groundskeeper named Gianni and witnesses a massive, violent labor uprising in the streets. The pool closes on Roberto Valera's assassination by the Red Brigade and Sandro's permanent return to Italy, leaving Reno completely alone.

The main arc from Valera's wartime origins to Reno's solitude in New York.

Copertini dies crashing into a tree during a wartime motorcycle race, and Valera methodically removes his headlamp.

Reno recalls her uncle Bobby, a truck driver and father figure who kept moving his leg even on his deathbed.

Valera's family moves from Alexandria to Milan, and Valera loses his desire to ride without open landscape around him.

Reno explores her New York neighborhood, watching street performers and encountering the eccentric downtown artist community.

Thurman pulls out a gun at a hotel dance floor, only for the handsome stranger to reveal it holds blanks.

Valera joins Lonzi's motorcycle gang, enlists to fight in World War I, and plans to build his own motorcycle.

Giddle tells Reno about her time with Andy Warhol's Factory crowd and how she reinvented herself as a diner waitress.

The Moto Valera team stages a deliberate work slowdown at the salt flats to honor a strike called in Milan.

Tonino proposes that Reno drive the Spirit of Italy to set the women's land speed record and block the American team.

Valera builds rubber production operations in Brazil using exploited Indigenous labor and manages his finances through Switzerland.

Sandro's cousin Talia arrives at a New York dinner party and violently punches herself in the face.

Reno calls for help after the mugging but hangs up when the 911 operator identifies Sandro as the perpetrator.

Factory workers stage violent strikes in Milan and kidnap motorsport star Didi Bombonato.

Ronnie opens the art show Match Your Mood, featuring photographs of women who had beaten themselves.

Reno wanders New York City alone on her Moto Valera after Roberto's death, observing riots and burning banks.

This pool covers the secondary events that give texture and depth to The Flamethrowers' world. Valera's origins in wartime Italy, his motorcycle gang, and his rubber empire in Brazil reveal the corrupt foundation of the Valera dynasty. Back in New York, Reno navigates an eccentric and chaotic social scene while the Moto Valera team's labor slowdown at the salt flats shows how the family's troubled history reaches all the way to Nevada. The escalating violence of Italian factory strikes and Didi Bombonato's kidnapping bring the labor conflict into sharp relief. The pool ends with Ronnie's confrontational art show and Reno wandering the burning city alone, searching for meaning after Roberto's death.

The supporting events that build the world of speed, art, and labor revolt.

Reno witnesses a man splash gasoline on a woman and flick lit matches toward her legs at a roadside gas stop.

Young Valera watches Marie sneak out of a convent to ride away on a motorcycle with another man.

Reno visits Sandro's gallery before meeting him and quietly studies his empty minimalist cube sculptures.

Reno arrives at Sandro's apartment for the first time and recognizes Ronnie as the stranger she spent a night with.

Ronnie and Sandro show Reno the Greek statue of a little enslaved girl that first bonded them as young men.

After her crash, Reno returns to the salt flats and photographs the tracks her motorcycle left in the snow.

Reno discovers that a woman answered Sandro's phone while she was staying with the Valera team in Nevada.

Mussolini is killed and publicly hanged, marking the end of the political era that built Valera's fortune.

Reno attends a dinner party where former anarchist Burdmoore describes the Motherfuckers group and points out Sandro's gun.

Sandro's mother speaks cruelly about Reno in Italian during the villa stay, not knowing Reno understands every word.

Reno realizes that the groundskeeper Gianni is a Red Brigade operative who took the villa job to spy on the Valeras.

The women in the Roman revolutionary apartment turn their backs on Reno and send her to stay in the bedroom.

Gloria confesses to her husband Stanley and to Reno that she believes she is in love with Ronnie.

Ronnie admits to Reno that Sandro had been sleeping with multiple other women, including Giddle, throughout their relationship.

Reno drives Gianni to an Alpine tram and waits alone at a French café, unsure if he will ever return.

This pool gathers the pivotal revelations and emotional turning points scattered across The Flamethrowers. Early moments — Valera's jealous awakening as Marie rides off with another man, and Reno's unease at a dangerous roadside encounter — plant seeds of obsession and danger that grow throughout the novel. Reno's discovery that Sandro's best friend is the very stranger she once spent a night with creates a secret tension that haunts their entire relationship. In Italy, overheard cruelty, a groundskeeper's hidden identity, and a community's sudden ostracism force Reno to see her world without illusions for the first time. The pool closes with Gloria's confession, Ronnie's devastating honesty about Sandro's betrayals, and Reno waiting alone in France for a man who may never arrive.