Love in the Time of Cholera Plot Summary

Love in the Time of Cholera Overview

The novel describes a love triangle involving Florentino Ariza, a telegraph operator with a poet's heart; Dr. Juvenal Urbino de la Calle, a cosmopolitan physician who has returned from France to practice medicine and search for a wife; and the object of both men's desire, Fermina Daza, a beauty with "almond-shaped eyes" who walks with a "doe's gait." While delivering a telegram to her father's house, Florentino Ariza meets Fermina and falls madly in love with her.

He begins to court her with letters that quickly and unabashedly declare his love for her. He even serenades her on the violin at night, standing on a hill in a cemetery so that the music will travel better. Florentino is a hopeless romantic, one who refuses to take no for an answer, not even when Fermina's father, a wealthy businessman with higher aspirations for his daughter than Florentino could possibly...
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