The novel begins in northern Italy during World War I: “In the late summer of the year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains” (3). Although it is not clear until subsequent chapters, the “we” refers to the Italian Army, and the narrator is Frederic Henry, an American serving as an officer in the Italian Second Army. Frederic is in the town of Gradisca at the start of the novel. None of those specifics are given in this brief chapter. Instead, the focus is on the landscape: the river full of rocks, the trees with their falling leaves, the low-lying plains contrasted against the mountains in the distance. Juxtaposed against this natural imagery are images of war: camouflaged troops marching along the road, huge weapons covered in branches, and artillery firing in the mountains. The soldiers are heading for the front.

The season shifts into fall, and the summer dust raised by the army troops has now changed into mud from the autumn rains. Against this dismal scene of slow plodding troops and trucks, cars speed by full of officers and “if the car went especially fast it was probably the King.