A floated figure sits inside the column and the text re-flows around it, shortening for as long as the picture lasts and then returning to the full measure. It is the one layout job neither flex nor grid can do, and the reason the float property is still worth having.

Nothing is applied to the paragraphs, which is the part that surprises people: the copy stays plain. A float shortens the line boxes of everything after it, so the text needs no wrapper, no column, and no float of its own.

How wide a column it floats in is the band's business, not the arrangement's. Leave the width at the reading measure and the wrapped lines run short; set it wider and the same arrangement reads as a magazine page.