Initially appearing in a special November 1951 issue of Life Magazine, The Old Man and the Sea was published in book form in 1952. It encompasses the exploits of its title character—the old, impoverished, but admirable Cuban fisherman Santiago—over the course of three days. While Santiago is not the novel’s narrator, the tale is related from his perspective and through his consciousness.

At the novel’s start, we are told that Santiago’s luck has gone bad, that he has not caught a marlin or any other fish for eighty-four days. So poorly has he fared that his young protege, the boy Manolin, has been forced to leave his mentor to work on another boat. Nevertheless, Manolin’s affection for the old man is so strong that he is willing to beg or even steal to provide him with good bait, the boy relishing the old man’s stories of past adventures and his knowledge of American baseball and its primary hero, the great Joe DiMaggio. Long a widower, the old man no longer dreams of his wife but of lions roaming on a beach.

On the eighty-fifth day, the old man goes out into the Caribbean waters around Cuba alone, and in short order he catches a large marlin. The old man waits for the fish to surface before tiring, but this does not happen. When night falls, his small boat is pulled far out to sea by the fish. On the next morning, the old man sees the marlin jump and realizes that landing such an enormous fish will mean a protracted struggle. The old man buoys himself by eating bait and remembering his youth, when he wrestled with “giant” men in the taverns of Havana. But with another day’s passage the old man’s energies are virtually exhausted, his hands deeply cut from holding the rope attached to the marlin. With his remaining strength, Santiago is about to bring the marlin in, but he finds that it is too large to fit in his boat, and he is forced to tie his catch to the boat’s side. It is then that the sharks begin to appear. First, a large Mako shark rips a huge chunk of flesh from the catch. The old man fights the shark off, but the smell of blood in the water draws others. By nightfall of the second day, the sharks have ripped the marlin to pieces. All the old man can do is steer his boat toward the lights of Havana.

Upon reaching the shore, the old man carries his gear, falling several times from exhaustion. At the pier, his fellow fishermen marvel at the skeleton of a fish larger than any that they have ever seen. The old man is greeted by Manolin, who urges him to rest and to prepare for another day’s fishing when they will again go out together. The novel ends as the old man falls asleep, with the boy at his side, and again dreams of lions on a distant shore.