Tender Is the Night

Continuing his vacation alone in Germany, Dick contemplates his relationship with Nicole, missing the good sides of her. His thoughts turn from Nicole to himself, since it was for his own sake that he left on this trip anyway. Dick considers that he has lost himself.

Dick considers starting an affair with a woman at the hotel where he is staying. After exchanging glances, he feels ashamed and goes up to his room to be alone. There, he reads a telegram that his father has died. He paces a long time, reflecting on his upbringing and the love he has for his father. Then, he books a ticket to go to America.

In Virginia, at the funeral of his father, Dick meditates about all the graves in the cemetery and feels a kinship with them all.

Afterward, on his way back from America, Dick runs into Albert McKisco, now a successful writer whose novels, though unoriginal, are at least popular. Dick catches up with McKisco and his wife.

At a hotel in Rome, Dick runs into Rosemary. They agree to meet later, and Dick returns to his room to sleep. When he awakes, he is nervous about seeing Rosemary again but eventually goes down to the lobby and there sees Collis Clay.

Dick and Rosemary are reunited in Rosemary’s room. Though she is distracted by telephone calls about work, the two eventually begin kissing and almost have sex, but Rosemary stops Dick, asking to delay.

As they talk together and catch up, Dick asks Rosemary about her sexual history. She light-heartedly evades the question. Rosemary has built up the image of Dick in her mind over the past four years, and now that he is behaving possessively just like other men, she begins to feel her idealism erode. They go for a walk and Rosemary apologizes for having already made plans that evening.

The next day, upon her invitation, Dick accompanies Rosemary to the movie set where he is mistaken for another actor. After lunch, Dick and Rosemary return to the hotel and have sex.

Rosemary is again busy. Dick goes to the lobby to have a drink with Collis Clay, realizing that the whole affair with Rosemary is mere indulgence and Nicole is his real love. After leaving Collis, Dick runs into Baby Warren.

At dinner, Dick and Baby discuss Nicole’s future. Baby wishes for Nicole to live away from the clinic so she is not around the patients. Dick challenges her, since before she had expressed the opposite opinion. Baby questions Dick’s loyalties and love for Nicole. As Collis Clay joins the table, Dick redirects the conversation to Baby’s past love affairs. Dick eventually drops Baby off where she is staying and compliments her politely.

The next day, Rosemary and Dick go to lunch together, and after returning to her room where Rosemary is again pestered by phone calls, Dick invites her to his room. He realizes he is no longer in love with Rosemary, but this fuels his lust for her.

Dick questions Rosemary again about her past romances with other men. A man she works with, Nicotera, wants to marry her, but she says that Dick is her first and preeminent love. Dick reads into her statements and senses an uncertainty in her that gives away her being out of love with him. Hurt, he dismisses Rosemary, and Rosemary cries.

Dick is drinking at a bar with Collis Clay, commenting on how he dislikes being in Rome and prefers to be in France. A message arrives for Dick from Rosemary. She writes that she did not go to her previous engagement that night and is in her room. This invitation comes on her last night in Rome; in the morning, she will be leaving. Dick declines the invitation, telling the messenger boy to pass on the word that he never found Dick.

Dick and Collis go to another bar and drink some more. Dick dances with a pretty English girl and drinks some more with Collis. After Collis leaves, Dick drinks some more and becomes drunk. Unaware of what is fully going on, he leaves the bar.

Drunk, Dick is unable to get a taxi ride home. He misunderstands the driver’s declared price for fare back to the hotel and gets into a fight. He is dragged to a nearby police station, where an officer tells him in French to pay what the driver is demanding. Dick finally acquiesces but first punches another officer, mistaking him for one of the taxi drivers. Dick is beaten to the ground by police officers, dragged into a cell, and left there.

Baby Warren is awoken by a messenger who informs her that Dick is in jail and badly beaten. She takes a taxi to the jail and yells at the surrounding guards when she sees Dick’s condition. Then, she goes to the Embassy but is unable to convince the porter to help her beyond getting an address from her. The Consulate is also closed; Baby then thinks of trying Collis at his hotel.

She finds Collis naked on his bed after a night of heavy drinking. He wakes up, dresses with embarrassment, and accompanies her back to the jail. Collis then stays with Dick while Baby returns to the Consulate. There, with harsh demands and threats, she at last persuades the vice-consul to resolve the matter with Dick and the Italian police.

Swanson, the vice-consul, arrives at the jail. One of Dick’s eyes has been beaten badly, and Dick is humiliated. Swanson warns Dick to be careful, saying people can get killed in situations like this.

Together with Collis, they go to the courtroom, where a small crowd has gathered to await the sentencing of another man charged with the rape and murder of a five-year-old child. At first, the crowd assumes Dick is the alleged killer, but then a translator explains it to them and quiets them down. Dick, once released by the judge, is pulled out of the courtroom by Collis while trying to yell back to the judge and the crowd’s remarks in defense of himself, angered at having been compared to a rapist.

Baby is waiting in the taxi with a doctor. They return to Dick’s hotel room where the doctor patches up Dick’s injuries and Baby stays with him, exuding an air of moral superiority over him in light of this embarrassing disaster.