These Summer Storms

Franklin Storm’s death forces his four children to reunite on Storm Island and confront not only the logistics of his will but also decades of secrets that shaped their upbringing. The resolution isn’t just about claiming their inheritance but also about the resurfacing of old wounds, and the siblings must decide whether to cling to the patterns that their parents instilled in them or to forge new ways of relating to each other.

Greta confronts the fallout from her secrets, Sam wrestles with falling short of his father’s expectations, Alice faces the secret ways that her father influenced her life without her consent, and Emily comes to terms with the truth of her parentage. The memorial service amplifies these tensions, bringing every conflict into the open and forcing the siblings to choose between continued estrangement and a tentative step toward unity. The text notes the Storm family’s struggles with vulnerability: “Empathy wasn’t a family trait for the Storms. It had never been rewarded” (35). Once the children overcome sibling rivalry by recognizing that the villain isn’t external but internal, and stop tearing one another down, they weaken their parents’ control and step into their roles as independent adults.