Summary: Tender Is the Night

In a peace­ful spot on the French Riv­iera, a remark­ably attrac­tive young actress named Rose­mary Hoyt, vaca­tion­ing with her moth­er, meets Dick Div­er, a charm­ing Amer­i­can ther­a­pist. Imme­di­ate­ly cap­ti­vat­ed, she is drawn into the lav­ish, upper-class lifestyle led by Dick and his spouse, Nicole. How­ev­er, the fes­tiv­i­ty unrav­els when a drunk­en acquain­tance of the Divers com­mits a crime, trig­ger­ing Nicole’s men­tal col­lapse, and lead­ing Rose­mary to wit­ness Dick con­sol­ing his trou­bled wife.

The sto­ry then goes back to the events that brought Nicole and Dick togeth­er. A Yale grad­u­ate and Rhodes schol­ar, Dick encoun­ters Nicole at a clin­ic in Zurich where he is study­ing clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gy, and she is under­go­ing treat­ment. The afflu­ent Chica­go heiress had suf­fered from her father’s sex­u­al abuse, result­ing in her strong aver­sion towards men. Despite this, the cou­ple falls in love, caus­ing Dick to take on the roles of both Nicole’s hus­band and ther­a­pist. Their life, full of exten­sive trav­els and the birth of two chil­dren, appears con­tent until Nicole’s con­di­tion dete­ri­o­rates, prompt­ing them to invest in a Swiss clin­ic. Ten­sions rise when a for­mer patient accus­es Dick of being unfaith­ful, lead­ing to Nicole crash­ing their car in a fit of anger.

After hear­ing about his father’s death, Dick returns to Amer­i­ca for the funer­al, only to rekin­dle his romance with Rose­mary upon his return. The after­math sees Dick descend­ing into a destruc­tive path, turn­ing to alco­hol, land­ing in jail, and ulti­mate­ly los­ing his posi­tion at the clin­ic. Upon return­ing to the Riv­iera, Nicole has an affair and asks for a divorce to mar­ry her lover, Tom­my Bar­ban. Rec­og­niz­ing Nicole’s recov­ery from her men­tal issues, Dick agrees and sub­se­quent­ly dis­ap­pears into the Amer­i­can wilder­ness, nev­er set­tling down, indi­cat­ing his ongo­ing wan­der­ing existence.

First Section

In a tran­quil French sea­side town, young Amer­i­can actress Rose­mary Hoyt and her moth­er, Mrs. Speers, check into a small hotel. At the beach, Rose­mary is drawn to a group of sun-kissed, attrac­tive indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing Dick Div­er, whom she quick­ly falls for. Rose­mary and her moth­er explore the near­by cities of Cannes, Nice, and Monte Car­lo. The next day, Dick invites Rose­mary to join his cir­cle where she meets Nicole Div­er, Abe North, Mary North, and Tom­my Bar­ban. Despite her attrac­tion to Dick, Rose­mary is fas­ci­nat­ed by the group’s sophis­ti­ca­tion and exclu­siv­i­ty. Fol­low­ing her moth­er’s sug­ges­tion, Rose­mary meets film­mak­er Earl Brady, spark­ing a mutu­al attrac­tion. Back at the Div­er vil­la, Dick orga­nizes a par­ty, invit­ing both the sun-kissed and pale groups. Dur­ing the par­ty, ten­sions esca­late between the groups, yet Rose­mary con­fess­es her love for Dick. Lat­er, Vio­let McK­isco stum­bles upon a dis­tress­ing scene in the Divers’ bath­room. This inci­dent leads to a duel between Tom­my Bar­ban and Albert McK­isco, for­tu­nate­ly end­ing with­out seri­ous harm. The group, now includ­ing Rose­mary, vis­its a World War I bat­tle­ground and lat­er enjoys drinks in Paris while Nicole rests. A slight­ly intox­i­cat­ed Rose­mary invites Dick to her room, but he polite­ly declines. The next day, Rose­mary and Nicole go shop­ping and lat­er, along with the rest of the group, watch Rose­mary’s film, “Dad­dy’s Girl.” After the screen­ing, Rose­mary dis­clos­es she has arranged a screen test for Dick, who adamant­ly refus­es. Lat­er, Dick and Rose­mary attend an artis­tic gath­er­ing, which Rose­mary dis­likes. Dur­ing the taxi ride back, they share a pas­sion­ate kiss, and Dick con­fess­es his love for Rose­mary but asserts he can­not leave Nicole. The group car­ries on with their fes­tiv­i­ties, bid­ding farewell to Abe North as he heads to Amer­i­ca. On the train plat­form, a woman shoots an Eng­lish­man, caus­ing a com­mo­tion. Mean­while, Dick becomes envi­ous after hear­ing a tale about Rose­mary’s past involve­ment. As Dick attempts to untan­gle his com­plex emo­tions, an unfore­seen inci­dent occurs. A man is dis­cov­ered dead in Rose­mary’s room, prompt­ing Dick to dis­creet­ly remove the body. This event, how­ev­er, plunges Nicole into a dis­tress­ing state, reveal­ing to Rose­mary what Vio­let McK­isco had wit­nessed pre­vi­ous­ly in the Divers’ bathroom.

Second Section

The nar­ra­tive now delves into Dick Diver’s back­sto­ry. A for­mer Yale stu­dent and Rhodes schol­ar, he stud­ied psy­chol­o­gy under Freud in Vien­na dur­ing the war, before mov­ing to Zurich in 1917. After the war, he returns to Zurich where he recon­nects with Franz Gre­gorovius (known as Dr. Gre­go­ry to his Amer­i­can patients), an old friend and class­mate. It is unveiled that Dick met Nicole War­ren, a patient at the Zurich clin­ic, before depart­ing for ser­vice in France. While in ser­vice, Nicole sends him numer­ous let­ters show­cas­ing a grad­ual improve­ment in her men­tal health. Her con­di­tion, a severe and pro­gres­sive­ly wors­en­ing fear of men, is even­tu­al­ly linked to her father, Mr. Dev­ereux War­ren. Fol­low­ing his wife’s death, he and Nicole grew uncom­fort­ably close, evolv­ing their rela­tion­ship into an inces­tu­ous one. Upon this rev­e­la­tion, Mr. War­ren is sent back to Chica­go by the clin­ic. Dr. Gre­go­ry attrib­ut­es Nicole’s progress to Dick­’s influence.

The two recon­nect, spend a night togeth­er, and although Dick ini­tial­ly plans to dis­tance him­self, his feel­ings for Nicole inten­si­fy. Despite inten­tions of extri­cat­ing him­self from Nicole’s life, after an acci­den­tal encounter in a Swiss town, they engage in a roman­tic rela­tion­ship. Sub­se­quent­ly, Nicole and Dick become engaged amid dis­ap­proval from Nicole’s sis­ter, Baby. A mon­tage ensues, depict­ing their mar­riage, the birth of their chil­dren, and their trav­els, all while Dick wres­tles with achiev­ing finan­cial auton­o­my from his afflu­ent wife. In a con­ver­sa­tion with Mrs. Speers before her depar­ture to Amer­i­ca, Dick con­fess­es his feel­ings for her daugh­ter, Rose­mary. He also express­es con­cerns about Nicole’s men­tal well-being fol­low­ing two break­downs. Dur­ing a trip to the Alps with Baby, Dr. Gre­go­ry sug­gests he and Dick acquire a strug­gling clin­ic. Despite finan­cial depen­den­cy caus­ing hes­i­ta­tion, Dick even­tu­al­ly agrees. After a year and a half at the clin­ic, Dick and Nicole’s rela­tion­ship suf­fers. Mat­ters wors­en when Nicole dis­cov­ers a note accus­ing Dick of seduc­ing a patien­t’s daugh­ter. Her men­tal state dete­ri­o­rates, cul­mi­nat­ing in a car acci­dent. In response to these events, Dick takes a break to Berlin. There he learns of a friend’s death, the escape of a Russ­ian prince, and receives news of his father’s pass­ing. He returns to the U.S. for his father’s funer­al. Back in Europe, he encoun­ters Rose­mary in Rome, reignit­ing their roman­tic affair. Mean­while, Baby urges him to sell the clin­ic and relo­cate Nicole to Eng­land. Fol­low­ing a drink­ing binge, Dick gets into a scuf­fle with a taxi dri­ver, lead­ing to his arrest. Despite Baby’s efforts to secure his release using her wealth, he spends the night behind bars, fur­ther tar­nish­ing his reputation.

Third Section

Dr. Gre­go­ry’s wife, Frau Kaethe, voic­es her dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the Divers to her hus­band. She feels mis­treat­ed by Nicole and men­tions Dick­’s increas­ing alco­hol-relat­ed issues. Dr. Gre­go­ry becomes alarmed and seeks a way to dis­tance Dick from the clin­ic’s operations.

He dis­patch­es Dick to meet a pros­per­ous Chilean and his off­spring, who need assis­tance. How­ev­er, Dick judges the sit­u­a­tion as unsolv­able. While on his jour­ney, Dick cross­es paths with an asso­ciate from Riv­iera, who dis­clos­es to him about Nicole’s father’s ter­mi­nal ill­ness. This news prompts Mr. War­ren’s urge to express regret to Nicole for his pri­or mis­treat­ment. Before agree­ing to a vis­it, Dick choos­es to seek advice from Dr. Gre­go­ry. Regret­tably, Frau Kaethe mis­tak­en­ly divulges the news to Nicole, prompt­ing her to has­ten to her father, only to dis­cov­er he has already depart­ed. Fol­low­ing an inci­dent involv­ing Dr. Gre­go­ry’s son who strug­gles with alco­holism and alleged­ly detect­ed alco­hol on Dick­’s breath, Dick ends up depart­ing from the clin­ic. The Divers then relo­cate to their estate on the Riv­iera, where they rel­ish a serene exis­tence until a call on Mary North, who wed­ded Hosain, a wealthy indi­vid­ual from Asia.

Feel­ing unin­ter­est­ed, Dick becomes ine­bri­at­ed and unin­ten­tion­al­ly insults Hosain’s sis­ter. This ini­ti­ates a heat­ed argu­ment with Mary. With­in their estate, a clash with their intox­i­cat­ed chef strains the Divers’ mar­i­tal bond. Try­ing to avoid a con­fronta­tion, Dick spends a night on an acquaintance’s ves­sel, indulging heav­i­ly in alco­hol and upset­ting an Eng­lish lady named Lady Car­o­line. Mean­while, Nicole and Tom­my Bar­ban engage in an exten­sive dis­cus­sion. The sub­se­quent day, Nicole offers Tom­my a bot­tle of cough med­i­cine against Dick­’s objec­tions. Over­heard rumors from the gar­den­er regard­ing an affair and let­ters from Rose­mary and Tom­my add strain. Upon encoun­ter­ing Rose­mary at the seashore, Dick­’s unsuc­cess­ful endeav­or to impress her with a water-ski maneu­ver and Mary North’s snub do not alter Rose­mary’s high regard for him. Infu­ri­at­ed by Rose­mary’s attempt to involve their off­spring in act­ing, Nicole dis­patch­es a provoca­tive­ly word­ed let­ter to Tom­my. Fol­low­ing a tense night with their chil­dren, Nicole returns home from shop­ping to dis­cov­er Dick has depart­ed for Provence. Tom­my sub­se­quent­ly drops by for a vis­it with Nicole.

Nicole and Tom­my spend the night togeth­er. Upon return­ing home, Nicole dis­cov­ers a dis­ori­ent­ed Dick, but her efforts to con­sole him prove fruit­less. Lat­er on, Dick frees Mary North and Lady Car­o­line from prison after a wild evening. After a hair­styling appoint­ment, Tom­my con­fess­es his affec­tion for Nicole to Dick. Unan­tic­i­pat­ed­ly, an indi­vid­ual Dick had encoun­tered in Paris announces the Tour de France, lead­ing to a quick agree­ment on Dick and Nicole’s sep­a­ra­tion. While Nicole and Tom­my are at the beach togeth­er, Dick engages in a final dia­logue with Mary North, who prais­es his for­mer self. The nar­ra­tive con­cludes with Nicole and Tom­my’s union and Dick relo­cat­ing to New York to pur­sue his med­ical career. Nicole learns that he lives a revered exis­tence but con­tin­ues relo­cat­ing to tran­quil towns, pos­si­bly to side­step issues with women.