Hemingway interweaves a close study of the biographical events of the author's life with excerpts from his fiction, non-fiction and short stories, informed by interviews with celebrated writers, scholars and Hemingway's son, Patrick. The filmmakers explore the painstaking process through which Hemingway created some of the most important works of fiction in American letters, including novels The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea; short stories "Hills Like White Elephants," "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "Up in Michigan," "Indian Camp" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro;" as well as the nonfiction works Death in the Afternoon and A Moveable Feast.