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Guy Montag meets his new neighbor, Clarisse McClellan
On his way home from the fire station, Montag meets his new 17 year old neighbor, Clarisse McClellan. As they talk, she admits that she is "crazy" and explains to Montag that the job of a fireman use to be to put out fires not start them. She continues to ask him questions about his job and she talks about how strange her family is and then asks if Montag is happy with his life. They both go home and Montag thinks about if he really is happy with his life. -
Mildred attempts suicide
Montag returns from work only to find an empty bottle of sleeping pills on the ground and sees Mildred, his wife lying on the bed looking very pale. He quickly calls an ambulance and they come to pump her stomach. They also take out the poisoned blood and put in fresh blood. -
Captain Beatty, Montag, and two other fireman receive a call to burn a house with books
The alarm in the fire station sounds off and Captain Beatty, Montag, and two other fireman rush to the scene. They arrive at a old house with an old woman and books in the attic. Montag catches a book and quickly hides it in his coat as the kerosene is sprayed onto the books. Montag attempts to get the old lady to leave with them but she refuses. Once Montag exits the house, the old woman lights a match and burns herself and the books to ashes. The fireman are quiet on the way back. -
Montag returns home and finds out that Clarisse is dead
Montag hides the books immdeiately once he enters the bedroom where his wife Mildred is. Montag asks Mildred if she has seen Clarisse, and Mildred responds by saying that the family moved away and Clarisse was hit by a car and killed. -
Montag feels sick and explains his guilt about burning the old lady to Mildred and he asks her if he could leave his job for a while and the argument ends when Captain Beatty approaches the house
Beatty explains the history behind why they burn books. It's because "minorities" and special interest groups found too many objectional things in books so they then abandoned and later on burned books. Also, once buildings became fireproof, firemen's jobs now became to burn all books. As Beatty talks Mildred discovers Montag's book behind his pillow and he yells at her to sit down before she pulled out the book. Beatty pretended nothing happened and continued talking. -
Beatty leaves the house and Montag shows Mildred his secret collection of about 20 books
Montag asks Beatty about what if a fireman took a book with him, and Beatty replies saying that the fireman would have 48 hours to burn it and then Beatty leaves. Montag shows Mildred his stash of 20 books. She quickly tries to burn them but Montag stops her. Montag explains to Mildred that he's trying to find happiness somewhere in the books and asks her for support in reading through the books for the next 48 hours. Someone visits but Montag and Mildred don't answer and begin to read. -
Montag and Mildred spend the day reading and Montag contacts an old English professor named Faber
While Montag and Milred read through books, the Mechanical Hound sniffs around the house and then it leaves. Montag, not understnading what the books meant, calls an English professor he met a year before in a park whose name was Faber. Montag asks if there are any copies of the Bible, Shakespeare, or Plato left in America he Faber, thinking it's a trap, says no and hangs up the phone. Montag goes back to his pile of books and realizes he took a copy of the Bible from the old woman. -
Montag pays a visit to Faber
Montag hops on a subway to a the district in which Faber lives in. He shows Faber the copy of the Bible. Montag suggests that they plant books in the houses of firemen to discredit the profession. Faber says that doing so wouldn't attack the heart of the problem. Faber says they should just be patient since the coming war will eventually mean the death of the TV families. Montag begins to tear out Bible pages and Faber agrees to the plan and says he knows a printer who can make more copies. -
Montag returns home to find Mildred, Mrs. Bowles, and Mrs. Phelps watching tv
Once Montag comes home, he finds the three women watching the parlor, the tv, and turns it off attempting to engage in a converstion. He pulls out a book of poetry which the women object to him reading as well as Faber, via a small earbud. Montag roceeds to read "Dover Beach" and Mrs. Phelps begins to cry and Mrs. Bowles says the emotional and evil mess in poetry caused Mrs. Phelps to cry. Mrs. Bowles and Phelps leave and Mildred goes to the bedroom only for Montag to find her burning books. -
Montag escapes to Faber's house
Montag plants books into a firemen's house and calls in an alert to a fire station. Montag arrives at Faber's house and tells him what occurred and gives Faber some money. Faber tells Montag to follow old railroad tracks leading to homeless intellectuals and to meet him in St. Louis in the future where the retitred printer is. They turn on a tv and see that a new Hound and a helicopter with a camera crew are after him. Faber gives Montag a suitcase and clothes and runs to the railroad tracks. -
Montag burns Captain Beatty alive, knocks out the other two and attempts to escape
Montag lights Beatty on fire and knocks the other two firemen out. The Mechanical Hound appears and puts a dose of anesthetic in Montag and then Montag lights the flamethrower in the Hound's mouth destroying it. He then digs up the books he hid in the yard and hears sirens approaching and runs away. He reaches a gas station and washes his face. He hears over a earbud radio he picked that war has been declared as well as a police alert telling people to lookout for him. -
Montag escapes to a river
Montag sprints to a river as he sees the chase occurring by seeing on the TV parlors in houses. As the announcer counts down for people to check outside to see if Montag is outside, Montag reaches the river when the announcer says ten. Just so that hound doesn't pick up his scent, Montag jumps into river and floats with the current. -
Montag finds the intellectuals
Once he steps outside the river, Montag follows the railroad tracks leading to a fire with five men. the leader, Granger, invites Montag over. The six men watch a portable TV as the chase turns into the opposite direction from Montag. They watch on as a fake Montag is found and the Hound attacks him and the announcer proclaiming that Montag is dead. They then turn off the TV and the men have found of method recalling parts of a book. -
Montag talks with the men and Granger gives their plans for the future
After the men put out the fire, they walk down the stream and Granger explains that they are part of network of intellectuals who also have mastered the recalling any book method and they plan to pass knowledge and books down from generation to generation until the world is ready for books again. -
The End
As the men walk down stream, jets fly over their heads and drop bombs over the city. The shock wave knocks them down and Montag pictures Mildred just as she is about to meet her death and remembers that they met in Chicago, a question he asked earlier, but Mildred couldn't remember. The men rose, ate breakfast and Montag with Granger and the other four men walk up the river to the city to help any survivors rebuild the ashes and humanity. -
Montag goes to the fire sation and gets a call to burn some books, but he arrives at the scene in disbelief
Montag goes to the fire station and turns in a different book instead of the Bible. A call comes in and the Montag, Beatty, and two others go to the house. When they arrive, Montag stands shocked because it was his house that they arrived at. Mildred comes out of the house with a suitcase and doesn't say a word to Montag and gets in a taxi and leaves. Beatty tells Montag to burn the house by himself and he is then under arrest. He does so and Montag can't believe what just happened.
