Peyton Place

Grace Metalious’s novel, Peyton Place, was published in 1956. With shocking subject matter for the time—including abortion, incest, and murder—the novel was quite controversial and launched a franchise of adaptations and sequels that outlived its author.

The novel opens with a lush description of Peyton Place, a small New England town in the grip of an Indian summer in 1937. Local newspaper publisher Seth Buswell and town doctor Matthew Swain sit and talk. At the local school, we meet Allison Mackenzie, who is ostracized because her mother, Constance, is a single mom, and Selena Cross, who is ostracized because her family is poor. Selena’s mother, Nellie, works for Allison’s mother as a housekeeper. Constance owns a small clothing boutique in town.

Allison fantasizes about her father, whose identity is a mystery to her. Her fantasies are painful to her mother, Constance, because Allison is, in fact, the illegitimate daughter of a married man from New York City. Constance had moved there as a young woman and had an affair with James Mackenzie, who died a few years after Allison’s birth. She moved back to Peyton Place with Allison, had her birth certificate falsified to obscure her birth date, and claimed to be a widow.



Selena has to deal with her stepfather, Lucas, who makes constant sexual advances towards her. The girls have become unlikely friends because of their shared status as outsiders, and they both vow to someday escape the small town.

Selena begins dating Ted Carter, and Allison shares a first kiss with Rodney Harrington, the son of the richest man in town. A new girl, Kathy Ellsworth, enters school, and Allison becomes friends with her.
Selena is raped and impregnated by Lucas. She seeks out Dr. Swain and breaks down, telling him about Lucas. Dr. Swain agrees to perform an abortion. Dr. Swain then goes to Lucas, gives him money as a payoff, and orders him to leave town or he will do everything he can to see him punished. Lucas leaves.

Constance begins a flirtatious relationship with the town’s new school principal, Tomas Makris while Allison writes articles for the school paper and begins dating Norman Page.



Norman’s mother, Evelyn, becomes convinced that Allison and Norman have slept together. It isn’t true, but Constance and Evelyn force the two to confess, and they are punished. Allison slaps her mother and her mother, angered, tells her the truth about Allison’s father, calling her a bastard. Allison is upset and angry; after so many years of fantasizing about her father, the truth is devastating. Allison runs to her room and, discovering the body of Nellie Cross in her closet, screams. Nellie had found out that Lucas impregnated Selena; horrified and broken by this news, she killed herself. The suicide and the reason for it affect Constance powerfully, and she is consumed by worry that a similar fate will fall on Allison.

Allison is hospitalized due to the dual shock. Constance, guilty, offers Selena a job at the store. The rumor about Allison and Norman began because Allison’s old boyfriend, Rodney, had sex with Betty Anderson, a wild girl who is very sexual; the two were observed and mistaken for Allison and Norman. Betty becomes pregnant, and Rodney gives her money to get an abortion, but Betty uses the money to leave town instead.

Wildfires break out on the edge of town, causing property damage and panic. Allison's best friend is injured terribly at a carnival. Lucas leaves town, and Selena intends to remake her life. Rodney dies in a car accident, devastating his parents.



World War II breaks out. Constance marries Makris despite the gossip. They are quite happy with each other in defiance of the scolds in town. Allison graduates school and moves to New York City in order to pursue a career as a writer and to punish her mother for the way she told her about her father. Selena is making progress in her attempt to escape her life of poverty when Lucas suddenly returns and assaults her. She kills him in desperation. When Allison learns that Selena has been arrested for the murder, she returns to Peyton Place. At the trial, Dr. Swain testifies about performing the abortion, revealing to the jury the extent of the abuse that Selena experienced from her stepfather. Selena is acquitted of murder.

Allison visits her mother and makes peace. She realizes that her mother and the town, which she spent so much time hating, have shaped her into the person that she is, and she makes peace with the town as well. She returns to New York City with a better appreciation of her life past and present.