To Have and Have Not recap

Key West boat captain Harry Morgan is cheated by a wealthy fishing client in Havana and turns to smuggling to recover the money needed by his family. He first accepts a job involving Chinese migrants, kills the intermediary he distrusts, and returns the passengers to Cuba rather than delivering them into exploitation. A later liquor run ends in gunfire, the loss of his arm, and confiscation of his boat. Unable to support his wife Marie and their daughters through legal work, Harry takes one last charter from Cuban revolutionaries who rob a Key West bank. They kill his helper Albert Tracy, but Harry ambushes the gunmen at sea and kills them, receiving fatal wounds himself. His death leaves Marie alone. Interwoven scenes among rich residents and yacht owners, especially the failing marriage of novelist Richard Gordon and his wife Helen, show that wealth insulates people from Harry's dangers without giving them loyalty or contentment.

Harry Morgan runs a fishing boat between Key West and Havana and depends on charter customers for his income. A Cuban intermediary approaches him about transporting armed men, but Harry refuses a job he considers too dangerous. His current client, Mr. Johnson, has hired the boat for weeks of marlin fishing. Johnson repeatedly ignores advice and loses fish, then disappears from Havana without paying Harry's large bill. The unpaid fuel, tackle, and wages leave Harry stranded and unable to return home with the money his family needs. Eddy, an alcoholic waterfront companion, remains close as Harry begins looking for a way to recover his losses outside the law.

Facing ruin after Johnson's departure, Harry accepts Mr. Sing's proposal to carry Chinese migrants secretly from Cuba to Florida. He realizes that Sing's organization profits by deceiving the passengers and that allowing the intermediary to remain in control would endanger him. Harry kills Sing aboard the boat, takes the money allotted for the passage, and refuses to complete the planned delivery. Instead, he puts the migrants back ashore in Cuba, giving them a chance to escape the men exploiting them, and returns toward Key West. The voyage solves his immediate shortage but binds his survival more closely to smuggling and violence.

Harry later uses his boat for a liquor-smuggling crossing with Wesley as crew. The illegal cargo exposes them to armed interception on the water. Gunfire wounds both men and destroys Harry's right arm, permanently reducing the work he can do. Authorities seize the boat as part of the case, taking away the tool on which his livelihood depends. Back in Key West, Marie remains fiercely loyal, but the Morgan household has little protection against lost income, medical damage, or official pressure. Harry's earlier competence at sea can no longer secure a legal future for the family.

With one arm and no usable boat of his own, Harry searches for work among Key West residents divided sharply by money. Albert Tracy, another poor family man, is also ready to accept dangerous employment because ordinary wages cannot support his household. In contrast, seasonal visitors and yacht owners move through private dramas protected by wealth. Novelist Richard Gordon behaves as though his status excuses his betrayals, while his wife Helen becomes increasingly conscious of the hollowness of their marriage. Harry's need for a final paying job grows as the novel shifts among people who occupy the same town but live under radically different consequences.

Harry accepts a charter from Roberto and other Cuban revolutionaries, recognizing the men as dangerous but needing the money. Albert joins him as crew. The passengers use the boat in a plan that includes robbing a Key West bank to finance their cause. During their escape they kill Albert, showing Harry that they will eliminate anyone who might identify or obstruct them. Once under way, the gunmen intend to control both Harry and the vessel until neither is useful. Harry, concealing his own preparations, waits for an opportunity to attack before they kill him as well.

At sea, Harry springs his ambush on the Cuban fugitives and kills them, but their return fire wounds him beyond recovery. The boat drifts until it is discovered and brought back with Harry alive only briefly. Before dying, he recognizes that individual toughness cannot overcome a whole system of poverty, violence, and unequal power. Marie loses the husband around whom her emotional and material life has been built. Nearby, the affluent continue their own betrayals: Helen's understanding of Richard Gordon ends the illusions sustaining their marriage, while other yacht owners remain enclosed in private misery. Harry has prevented the gunmen from escaping and avenged Albert, but he cannot save himself or secure his family's future. His death exposes the cost borne by people forced to risk everything merely to keep living.

The Cuban gunmen seize Harry's boat after their Key West bank robbery and kill Albert Tracy during the escape. At sea, Harry uses a concealed weapon to turn on the fugitives, killing them before they can dispose of him, but he is badly wounded in the exchange. The drifting boat is found and brought in with Harry barely alive. He reaches the conclusion that an isolated man cannot prevail against the economic and social forces closing around him, then dies of his wounds. Marie is left to absorb both the loss of her husband and the collapse of the hard, intimate life they built together. Around their tragedy, the wealthy people aboard nearby yachts continue with their betrayals and private unhappiness. Richard Gordon's marriage is breaking apart as Helen recognizes his vanity and cruelty. The ending joins the Morgans' material desperation to the emptiness of the prosperous lives around them: Harry's last voyage is over, his family has paid its price, and the larger divisions that trapped him remain unchanged.