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A spiritually exhausted Gustav von Aschenbach is walking through Munich. He speaks to a traveller who tells him great stories about the lands to the south and encourages von Assenbach to journey there.
On the ship, Von Aschenbach speaks to an elderly fop who teases him, telling him that he'll find everything he's looking for in Venice.
At the hotel, the manager shows him his room, complete with a view of the sea. Alone, von Aschenbach watches a Polish family pass by. He is struck by the beauty of the young son.
Sitting on the beach, Von Aschenbach watches the young Polish boy and learns his name is Tadzio. He notices Tadzio's pride and youthful beauty.
Von Aschenbach walks the streets of Venice, but the heat and smell of the city make him uncomfortable and he decides to visit the mountains for fresh air. At the hotel, Tadzio passes him in the hallway and looks at him for the first time. Von Aschenbach reconsiders his decision to leave. Looking out his hotel window, he watches Tadziù and realizes that the boy is the reason he has stayed.
On the beach, von Aschenbach watches Tadzio and his friends play. He approaches Tadzio, but at the last moment he cannot bring himself to talk to the boy. When Tadzio's family returns, the boy smiles at him. Von Aschenbach realizes the truth. Unheard, he whispers "I love you."
Von Aschenbach has begun writing as he struggles to put his interest in Tadzio into a creative context. In the hotel’s barber shop, the barber asks him if he is afraid of the sickness. Von Aschenbach asks him to explain, but the barber refuses to elaborate.
Von Aschenbach detects a medicinal sweetness in the air. He buys a German newspaper, where he reads that there are rumours of cholera in Venice and German citizens are being urged to leave. When he sees the Polish family, he determines that they must not know about the warnings. He decides to follow them. He follows them all day, not caring what anyone might think of him.
A clerk at the travel bureau is trying to help a crowd of travellers leave Venice. Von Aschenbach asks why they are all leaving. When pressed, the clerk admits that Asiatic plague has hit Venice. Von Aschenbach is frantic to warn Tadzio's mother. She walks right by him, but again he is unable to speak. He wonders what it might be like if everyone were to die and only he and Tadzio were left alive.
Von Aschenbach is disturbed by a dream in which Apollo resists Dionysus' call to indulge his baser instincts. As he awakes, von Aschenbach realizes he can fall no further. The next day, he watches Tadzio and his friends play on the beach.
The hotel barber dyes von Aschenbach's hair and applies makeup to his face. Von Aschenbach sees the Polish family on the streets in Venice, and follows them as usual. Tadzio hangs back a little and looks at von Aschenbach directly. Von Aschenbach is flustered but excited that Tadzio did not betray his presence. He continues to follow the family until he is too weary to go on.
The hotel manager and porter arrange for the departure of the Polish family. Out on the beach, von Aschenbach sits in his usual chair. Tadzio is wrestling with his friend, but the game becomes rough and Tadzio is pushed into the sand. Von Aschenbach attempts to go to him. Tadzio slowly wades out into the sea, turning with a beckoning gesture to von Aschenbach, who slumps back into his chair, dead.