The Novel’s Unresolved Destination
Breakfast at Tiffany'sThe closing movements contrast the cat’s recovered belonging with Holly’s continuing wanderings, leaving the reader with a hope rather than a confirmed reunion.
increasing
Bearing strength in each event
decreasing
The Flight Report

A Report from Elsewhere
Rio and Beyond
The press reports that Holly has been traced to Rio, then the news fades. Her movements are known only through unreliable public fragments.
Distance Becomes Permanent
No immediate contact reaches the narrator. The disappearance is not a dramatic vanishing but a gradual loss of reliable information.
The Old Apartment Changes Hands

A Room Without Holly
Possessions Sold
The brownstone owner sells Holly’s abandoned furniture and decorations. A new tenant takes over the apartment and fills it with a different life.
Place Outlasts Its Occupant
The building remains, but its meaning changes. The narrator’s memories make the room a vanished setting rather than a home he can revisit unchanged.
Sally’s Death

The Case’s Aftermath
News from Sing Sing
Sally Tomato dies of a heart attack in prison. His death closes one part of the criminal story that helped force Holly out of New York.
No Resolution for Holly
The news does not reveal where Holly is or whether she will return. The end of Sally’s story provides no matching closure for hers.
Buenos Aires Almost

A Postcard Arrives
A Message in Pencil
Holly writes that Buenos Aires is almost like Tiffany & Co. She mentions a new companion and says she is still looking for somewhere to live.
Contact Without Reunion
The card confirms that she remains in motion, but gives no address. The narrator has no way to answer or send the news he most wants to share.
The Final Window

A Cat at Home
The Search Ends
The narrator finds Holly’s cat in a welcoming window, certain that it has found a place where it belongs. His promise to Holly has finally been fulfilled.
Hope Without Proof
He hopes Holly has found such a place too, but cannot know. The ending leaves her future open, balancing the cat’s settled life against her continuing uncertainty.
After Holly’s departure from New York
During the winter after Holly leaves
Christmas after Holly leaves
The spring following the winter of silence
One cold sunny Sunday in the following winter