The Sun Also Rises chronicles the experiences of Jake Barnes, a war veteran now working as a journalist in Paris in the aftermath of World War I, and his American and British expatriate friends among them his occasional love interest, Lady Brett Ashley as they search for meaning and purpose in their unmoored lives. The novel's plot climaxes in Spain, during the running of the bulls in Pamplona, in a series of events that illuminates both the strengths and shortcomings of the characters lives.