53 pages • 1-hour read
These Summer Storms
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Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and sexual content.
Chapter 1 Summary
It’s Labor Day weekend, and Alice Storm boards an Amtrak train to spend the next five days with her family, as her father, Franklin Storm, has died. Alice, a teacher, was looking forward to spending the next week enjoying the last of her summer break, but now she wonders if she can survive the next five days. She’s newly single, and it stings a bit when another passenger takes the seat next to her and she must answer that she’s alone. The man scrolls through headlines on his phone, and she spots the one announcing her father’s death. The man turns his phone over, and she notices that it bears the S insignia, which stands for “Storm Inside™” (9).
Chapter 2 Summary
The train arrives in Wickford, Rhode Island, Alice’s stop. The man sitting next to her stands to exit, too, and assures her that he’s not following her. They wait for their rides together, and once more, the man says he’s not following her and keeps his distance. Alice says he can stay next to her. She finds him attractive, although she’s still reticent around men since her recent broken engagement. Alice can tell from his speech and demeanor that he’s not a “local.” He’s staying at the Quahog Quay Motel and is here on business.
A summer storm is brewing, and Alice is anxious for her driver to arrive, knowing what she’s about to face. Her father is dead, and she feels “empty” in her grief, as she and her father haven’t spoken in five years. The man begins to introduce himself, but Alice stops him because she doesn’t want to have to tell him her name. Alice briefly considers a “one-night stand” with this man, something to enjoy before facing her family. She imagines telling her best friend, Gabi, about the strange day. Benny, Alice’s driver, cancels, and just as the man’s ride arrives, reporters appear as if from nowhere and begin snapping pictures of Alice and peppering her with questions about her estranged relationship with her father. She shields herself behind the man. The driver helps Alice into the car as the man defends them against the reporters. When he gets into the car, his knuckles are red, and he gives her the memory cards from their cameras. Alice takes his hand and tells the driver that she’s going to the motel.
Chapter 3 Summary
Alice slips out of bed and leaves before the man wakes up. Because of her family, Alice “built her shields early” (26) when it came to men and doesn’t trust people easily. Her decision to have a one-night stand with a stranger was out of character, but she doesn’t regret it. Alice takes a small boat out to Storm Island, the location of her family compound. Her mother, Elisabeth, greets her, surprised at her arrival. The tension of Alice’s estrangement is evident in Elisabeth’s careful choice of words, especially about Alice’s choice to take the train rather than come via helicopter. Alice addresses her mother’s passive aggression by saying that she’s there and it doesn’t matter how she arrived.
Elisabeth wonders where Griffin, Alice’s fiancé, is, and Alice lies, saying that he had to work. Alice knows that her family never approved of Griffin, an out-of-work actor. Despite his having left her, Alice still feels attached to him, as he was part of her life that she had tried to carve out, separate from her family’s status. Elisabeth is unemotional despite having lost her husband the previous day. Franklin Storm died in a hang gliding accident, and Elisabeth calls hang gliding one of his “toys,” referring to his love of adrenaline-filled experiences.
When Alice steps into the pantry, she sees all her father’s favorite foods. This triggers her emotions, but she hides them from her mother, as their family never valued vulnerability. Alice’s older brother Sam enters the kitchen, and they trade snarky barbs, having not spoken in five years. Elisabeth gets upset over not having her tablet, which Franklin designed, and Sam and Alice exchange knowing looks, silently agreeing that their mother is struggling. Sam works for his father, and Alice knows that he hopes to inherit the empire, but she also knows that her father wouldn’t want that. Alone in the kitchen, Sam fishes for information about why Griffin isn’t with Alice and why she arrived after everyone else. Alice lies about Griffin, and they exchange a silent acknowledgement that they’re both hiding things.
Greta, the oldest, arrives saying she’s been for a walk, but everyone knows she spent the night with Tony, their father’s bodyguard, with whom she’s been having a not-so-secret affair for 17 years. Like Griffin, Greta grills Alice about her whereabouts the previous night, and Alice admits to staying at the motel but claims it was because of the paparazzi. Alice recognizes that she and her siblings are “sliding into their old roles” (39) and that it will be a long weekend of dodging truth to placate her family.
Chapter 4 Summary
As Alice goes up to her bedroom, she recalls the history of Storm Manor and the private island it stands on. The island once belonged to another wealthy family, but by the 1980s, it was uninhabited and in disrepair. Indigenous Americans initially named the island “Uhquŏhquot,” meaning “tempest.” When Franklin purchased the island, he saw it as a sign of destiny that it bore his name. Though the family owns homes in other places, Storm Island has always been their private gathering place. Alice’s room is in a turret, which has always made her feel “like a lost princess in a fairy tale” (43), yet she can’t deny that she loves the view from her window.
Alice unpacks and turns on her phone to scroll through missed calls and text messages, including one from Griffin. She deletes the text before succumbing to weakness and responding, just as Gabi calls. Alice assures Gabi that she’s safe at the family compound. Gabi is a lawyer, and her partner, Roxanne, is the society editor for Bonfire Magazine. With Roxanne’s help, the magazine printed the story that nearly brought her father’s company to ruin and caused their falling out. Gabi wants to be there to support Alice, so she invites both Gabi and Roxanne to the memorial service on Monday. Just as she’s about to explain to Gabi why she stayed at a motel on the mainland the previous night, Alice’s younger sister, Emily, knocks on her door.
Emily and Alice have always been close since they’re only five years apart. Unlike the other Storms, Emily isn’t afraid to show her emotions and has always been everyone’s favorite. She owns a wellness shop on the mainland, where she lives with her wife, Claudia. Emily had reached out to Alice and invited her to their wedding on Storm Island on the Fourth of July, but Alice didn’t come. Now, Emily seems surprised but grateful that Alice is there. She offers to lead her in a meditation later. Elisabeth summons them downstairs, saying that they have a guest. The guest is the man Emily met last night, and he knows everyone. Elisabeth introduces him as “Jack” and ushers everyone into the main room for a meeting. For a moment, Alice is alone with Jack and accuses him of lying to her the previous night. She braces for whatever is to come from this turn of events.
Chapter 5 Summary
Jack meets with all four siblings, Elisabeth, and Sila (Sam’s wife). Elisabeth is confused about why Arthur, the family lawyer, isn’t there. Franklin tasked Jack, who was his managing director, with delivering the terms of their inheritance through letters to each family member. Arthur is the executor of the will, but Franklin has specific tasks for each person to complete to vie for the billions of dollars, or “35 percent of the largest publicly traded company in the world” (63). Sam, who has consistently assumed that he’ll take his father’s place and is jealous of Jack, complains that their father is subjecting them to “Storm Olympics,” pitting them against one another.
Franklin’s letter to Sam instructs him to complete several manual labor projects around the home, including cleaning the boat and replacing shingles on the roof. Franklin’s letter to Elisabeth stipulates that she say something nice about Franklin out loud every day. Greta and Emily refuse to disclose the contents of their letters. Alice didn’t receive a letter and assumes that she doesn’t have to play the game, and she feels partially relieved but deeply sad. Sila complains that the terms aren’t fair and that since she and Sam have created “heirs,” they should be exempt. Sila’s family was once wealthy but lost it all. Everyone knows that she married Sam for his money, which explains her concern.
Alice stands to leave, but Jack calls her name, which sends vibrations through her body. She feels betrayed by him, but can’t deny her attraction to him. Though Alice didn’t have a letter, Franklin included her in the game, and her only task was to remain on the island all week. Alice has no intention of participating, disgusted with her family’s greed and lack of desire to grieve. However, Jack says that the final rule of the game is that everyone must play, or no one wins.
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
Alice’s journey to Storm Island evokes the classic literary trope of estrangement and reluctant return. Alice’s return is a mix of grief and obligation, resentment, and unresolved trauma, as she’s returning to a place she once deliberately abandoned. Alice’s choice to take a train rather than the family helicopter establishes her as someone seeking agency apart from her wealthy family, introducing the theme of Familial Identity Versus Personal Autonomy. This choice grounds Alice in emotional reality because she returns to the island as a woman who has spent years carving out an independent existence, away from the influence of her father and siblings.
Alice’s decision resists ease and entitlement in favor of intentionality and control over her narrative. The isolated, storm-battered island symbolizes the claustrophobia Alice feels, both emotionally and physically. The island represents the privilege and control that the Storm family name carries, as well as the pain and pressure it exacts. Returning to the family compound is a regression into a version of herself that she tried to leave behind. The train ride brings Alice’s unexpected encounter with Jack Dean, symbolically occurring in a space that Alice chose outside her family’s reach. This reawakens Alice’s resistance, inspiring her to embark on a one-night stand with the stranger, which she views as a rebellion.
The revelation that Jack Dean works for Alice’s father sharply disrupts the emotional and symbolic freedom she thought she had claimed by spending the night with him. What began as a moment of self-determined intimacy suddenly becomes flooded with a feeling of betrayal and an echo of the patriarchal power she abhors. This shift creates a destabilizing power imbalance. Jack holds knowledge and authority over Alice, as he knows more than she does about her father’s plans, about the inheritance scheme, and about the game she has been unknowingly drawn into. Worse, he holds the memory of their night together, which Alice no longer trusts as hers alone. What began as an empowering act of emotional and physical agency collapses under the weight of hidden agendas and familial intrusion. Franklin, even in death, reaches beyond boundaries and rewrites her narrative once again. In this moment, Alice realizes the fragility of her independence and the difficulty of trusting when power dynamics are uneven, as well as the emotional cost of trying to live outside the shadow of a family that still believes it owns her.
Franklin Storm symbolizes the theme of The Effects of Control and Manipulation, and Alice’s decision to sever ties with him and her siblings years earlier was an act of emotional survival. Her travel back to Storm Island isn’t a return to a place of comfort, but a journey into the eye of confrontation. MacLean uses the metaphor of the incoming summer storm, foreboding and inevitable, to symbolize what awaits Alice: “Dad loved a summer storm” (13).
Alice’s return home forces each member of the Storm family to confront the damage inflicted by years of emotional distance, secrecy, and privilege. Though she arrives intending only to attend her father’s funeral and leave quickly, Alice’s presence disrupts the fragile equilibrium that her family has maintained in her absence. Her return represents a reawakening of suppressed tensions and long-avoided truths, introducing the theme of The Need to Reckon With Family History. The Storm family has long operated under the shadow of Franklin Storm’s power. His wealth, charm, and control shaped not only the family’s public image but also its private dysfunction. Alice’s decision to leave represents a rejection of a system that demanded loyalty in exchange for silence. Upon her return, she reopens wounds that never healed and exposes the emotional fault lines between her and her siblings as well as with her mother. Her presence alone challenges the narrative that maintaining appearances is more important than confronting pain. Franklin’s inheritance game intensifies this reckoning. By assigning each child a personalized task, he forces them into emotional exposure: Elisabeth must express praise for a man she has fallen out of love with; Sam must face responsibility, and Alice must remain, perhaps the cruelest task of all for someone who has finally escaped. In this way, Alice is both a protagonist and a catalyst. She longs to mourn but must reenter the “storm” of her family’s dysfunction. She must decide whether she’s still tethered to the legacy or can finally dismantle the structures of power and expectation that once defined her.
Franklin’s posthumous challenge manipulates his children a final time, but for their good, as their tasks force them to undergo personal growth. The inheritance game is an emotional test of loyalty, obedience, and familial expectations. It’s not just a vehicle for earning wealth, but also for claiming or rejecting identity as a Storm. Franklin knew the game would reveal long-standing power dynamics between the siblings, just as wealth became a means of control rather than a safety net for the family. Alice’s mom and her siblings all have vastly different coping styles that converge in a constrained space that amplifies trauma. The forced proximity of the setting raises the emotional stakes and paves the way for confrontation and possibly reconciliation.
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