Come Fly with Me (1963) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Donna targets the Baron because he represents the affluent lifestyle and social prestige she craves. She works as a flight attendant but wants to escape her station, and the young Baron Franz Von Elzingen offers both wealth and title, a rare opportunity she believes she can't pass up, despite the class divide and risks involved.

• donna
• baron
• social climbing
• motivation
• prestige

Donna is arrested at airport customs and charged with smuggling diamonds. She was unknowingly serving as a mule for the Baron, carrying his diamond stash without realizing it. The Baron had trusted her with his cigarette case containing the gems, and she was caught when police intercepted the contraband.

Foreshadowing: The Baron leaves his gold cigarette case with Donna in Vienna, warning her that police could intercept him.

• donna
• arrested
• smuggling
• diamonds
• paris
• police

The Baron is cash-poor despite his aristocratic title, preferring the risky but lucrative work of diamond smuggling to honest employment. He uses Donna as an unwitting mule, first leaving his gold cigarette case with her in Vienna, then convincing her to fetch custom cigarettes from New York, another smuggling task. He later tells his overlord he's done using her, but by then Donna has already been caught.

• baron
• smuggling
• diamonds
• mule
• vienna

Hilda distances herself from Walter because she realizes the financial recklessness involved with him. When Walter admits he has $40 million but spends money he can't afford, Hilda scolds him for his wasteful ways. More importantly, she's fearful of getting hurt again, she'd already seen his drunken bravado earlier and worries about becoming vulnerable to a man still grieving his wife's death four months prior.

Foreshadowing: At the amusement park, Walter reveals his wife died four months earlier, and Hilda becomes cautious about continuing the relationship.

• hilda
• walter
• relationship
• money
• fear

When Katie's husband arrives at the Vienna hotel looking for his wife, Carol warns the others and then takes Katie's place in bed with Ray to throw off suspicion. This protective deception saves Katie from being caught in an affair, though Ray gets punched by the husband as a result. Carol then lectures Ray about 'values' despite her own complicit role in the deception.

• carol
• katie
• ray
• hotel
• deception
• husband

At the final flight's end, Carol heads to the cockpit to lecture Ray about his values once more. Before she can deliver another lecture, Ray straps her into a jump seat, gags her, and begins to stage a surprise marriage proposal. The film ends with this ambiguous proposal hanging in the air, it's unclear if he's joking or serious, but the gesture suggests their relationship has shifted from antagonism to something more romantic.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, Ray shows tender moments like comforting a crying child in the cockpit, which softens Carol's opinion of him.

• carol
• ray
• proposal
• ending
• cockpit
• gag

Walter reveals at an amusement park that his wife died four months earlier. This explains his vulnerable emotional state and his reckless behavior, he's drinking heavily and chasing excitement as a way to cope with grief. Hilda becomes wary of getting involved with him precisely because of this recent loss, fearing he's not ready for a new relationship.

• walter
• wife
• death
• grief
• backstory

Ray's romantic misadventures lead to his demotion. His complicated relationship with the married Katie creates chaos throughout the trip, when her husband arrives at the Vienna hotel and punches Ray, the situation spirals. His inability to commit and his womanizing ways apparently catch up with him, resulting in his reassignment to less prestigious routes.

• ray
• demoted
• romance
• katie
• charters

After being temporarily released by police as a pawn in a larger game, Donna meets the Baron at an out-of-the-way cafe. He tries to placate her with money for a good attorney, but she refuses and returns the heirloom necklace he gave her. She then kisses him goodbye as she spots police staking them out, believing he's surrendering. The necklace later returns to her with a note reading 'Auf Wiedersehen', the Baron's farewell.

• baron
• donna
• necklace
• cafe
• vienna
• farewell