The old man Santiago lives in a small fishing village in Cuba and fishes all alone. The last time he spent 84 days at sea, but did not catch anything. Previously, a boy Manolin used to fish with him, who helped the old man a lot, but the boy's parents decided that Santiago was unlucky and told his son to go to sea on another boat.
The old man taught Manolin to fish, and the boy loves Santiago, wants to help him. He buys him sardines for bait, brings food to his hut. The old man has long come to terms with his poverty.
He was too simple-minded to think about when humility came to him. But he knew that humility had come without bringing either shame or loss of human dignity.
They talk with the boy about fishing and famous baseball players. At night, the old man dreams of Africa in his youth, and "lions that go ashore."
Early the next morning, the old man goes fishing. The boy helps him carry the sail, prepare the boat. The old man says that this time he "believes in luck."
One after another, fishing boats set sail from the shore and go to sea. The old man loves the sea, he thinks of it with tenderness, as a woman. Having hooked a bait, Santiago slowly swims with the flow, mentally communicating with birds and fish. Accustomed to loneliness, the old man is talking aloud to himself.
Before, alone, he sang; sometimes he sang even at night, on watch, when he walked on large sailboats or hunted turtles.
The old man knows different inhabitants of the ocean and treats them very gently.
First, Santiago catches a little tuna. He hopes that next to a flock of tuna there is a large fish that likes its sardines. Soon, the old man notices a slight tremor of a flexible green rod, which replaces his fishing rod. The fishing line goes down, and the old man feels the enormous weight of the biting fish.
The old man is trying to pull up a thick fishing line, but he does not succeed - a large and strong fish pulls a light boat along with him. The old man regrets that there is no boy with him - he could have removed the bait from other rods while Santiago is fighting the fish.
It takes about four hours. The evening is drawing near. The old man's arms are indented, he throws the fishing line on his back and puts a bag under it. Now Santiago can lean against the side of the boat and relax a bit.
It is impossible for a person to be left alone in old age ... However, this is inevitable.
Night. The fish pulls the boat farther from the coast. The old man is tired, but the thought of a fish does not leave him for a second. Sometimes he feels sorry for her - the fish, so big, strong and old, must die so that he can live on. Santiago is talking to the fish: "I will not part with you until I die."
The old man’s strength is running out, and the fish is not going to get tired. Santiago eats tuna at dawn - he has no other food. The old man’s left hand cramps. The old man hopes that the fish will emerge, and then he can kill her with a harpoon. Finally, the forest goes up, and a fish appears on the surface. She burns in the sun, her head and back are dark purple, and instead of her nose is a sword, as long as a baseball bat. She is two feet longer than the boat.
Alone, in the open sea, he was firmly attached to such a large fish as he had never seen, about which he had never even heard of.
Appearing on the surface, the fish again goes into the depths, pulls the boat along, and the old man gathers strength to hold it. Not believing in God, he reads Our Father.
Another day passes. To distract himself, the old man recalls baseball games. He recalls how he once measured his strength in a tavern in Casablanca with a powerful black man, the strongest man in the port, how they sat for a whole day at the table, without losing their hands, and how he finally got the better of him. He participated in similar fights more than once, won, but then threw this matter away, deciding that he needed the right hand for fishing.
The battle with the fish continues. Santiago holds the forest with his right hand, knowing that when the forces run out, the left will replace her, the cramp in which has long passed. A mackerel comes across a small fishing rod. The old man strengthens his strength with it, although this fish is completely tasteless. He is sorry for the big fish, which has nothing to eat, but the determination to kill her from this does not decrease.
It’s so good that we don’t have to kill the sun, moon and stars. It is enough that we extort food from the sea and kill our brothers.
At night, the fish comes to the surface and begins to walk in circles, either approaching the boat, or moving away from it. This is a sign that the fish is tired. The old man is preparing a harpoon to finish off the fish. But she steps aside. From fatigue, thoughts get confused in the old man’s head, and black spots dance before his eyes. Santiago collects the remaining strength and sticks the harpoon to the fish in the side.
And then the fish came to life, although it already brought death within itself - it rose high above the water, as if boasting of its enormous length and breadth, all its beauty and power.
Overcoming nausea and weakness, the old man ties fish to the side of the boat and turns toward the shore. The direction of the wind tells him which way to swim in order to get to the house.
An hour passes before the first shark, which has sailed for the smell of blood, is shown. She approaches the stern and begins to tear the fish with her teeth. The old man hits her with a harpoon in the most vulnerable spot on the skull. She sinks to the bottom, dragging a harpoon, part of the rope and a huge piece of fish
Santiago kills two more sharks with a knife tied to an oar. These sharks take with them at least a quarter of the fish. On the fourth shark, the knife breaks, and the old man takes out a strong club.
He knew that every shark push on a boat meant a piece of torn meat and that the fish now left a mark on the sea, wide as a highway, and accessible to all sharks in the world.
The next group of sharks attacks the boat before sunset. The old man drives them away with blows of batons on the heads, but at night they return. Santiago fights with predators first with a baton, then with a sharp fragment of a tiller. Finally, sharks swim away: they have nothing more to eat.
The old man enters the bay at his hut late at night. Having removed the mast and tied the sail, he wanders to the house, feeling incredible fatigue. For a moment, the old man turns around and sees a huge tail of fish and a reflection of a white ridge behind the stern of his boat.
A boy comes to the old man’s cabin. Santiago is sleeping. The boy cries when he sees his wounded palms. He brings the old man coffee, calms him and assures us that from now on they will fish together, because he still has a lot to learn. He believes that he will bring good luck to the old man.
In the morning, fishermen are amazed at the remains of a giant fish. Rich tourists come ashore. They are surprised to notice a long white spine with a huge tail. The waiter tries to tell them what happened, but they don’t understand anything - they are too far from this life.
And the old man is sleeping at this time, and he is dreaming of lions.
