All the events happened at the bar in front of the train station in the hot weather, the man orders two beers. The girl remarks that the nearby hills look like white elephants, to which the American responds that he’s never seen one. They order more drinks and begin to bicker about the taste of the alcohol. The American chastises her and says that they should try to enjoy themselves. The girl replies that she is merely having fun and then retracts her earlier comment by saying the hills do not actually look like white elephants to her anymore. Young Americans are stressed about what they are determined to do. He seems agitated and tries to downplay the operation is seriousness. He argues that the operation would be simple, for example, but then says the procedure really is not even an operation at all. The girl says nothing for a while, but then she asks what will happen after she is had the operation. The man answers that things will be fine afterward, just like they were before, and that it will fix their problems. He says he has known a lot of people who have had the operation and found happiness afterward.