That Summer

The narrative continues the story of Diana’s life seven years after the night of the bonfire. Over the course of the winter, Michael and Diana grow closer. She meets his parents and his friends. They kiss and hold hands, and Michael does not push her for any more than that. At the end of January, there is a blizzard, and Michael stays with Diana. They spend their birthdays together, and Michael buys them kayaks in hopes that they will use them during the following summer.

As summer approaches, Michael wonders if the boys that abused Diana could be punished somehow. Diana considers blackmailing them but believes that no revenge plot could ever restore what they took from her. Her whole life changed because of what they did. Michael and Diana kiss and cautiously have sex for the first time, and Michael tells Diana that he loves her. Later in the spring, Michael again asks Diana to stay for the summer, but she says she can’t because she is worried that the boys from Emlen will return. Michael proposes, and even though Diana reveals that she never wants children, they get engaged.

Michael and Diana get married in September of that year. Diana has finally told her family the truth about her assault in 1987, and she and Michael buy the cottage from Dr. Levy. Years pass, and they live happily together. Diana begins to sell her paintings at local art fairs and gains critical acclaim for her work. She finds a therapist and becomes close with her nieces and nephews, who visit her and Michael on the Cape. One of her nieces is being teased by the boys at school, and Diana immediately worries about her. She reflects on the fact that the boys who raped her stole her opportunity to be a mother. Her dog Willa dies, and she and Michael get a new dog. In 2010, Reese retires and sells the Abbey restaurant to Diana. When the #MeToo Movement begins to go viral, Diana wonders whether the boys who harmed her feel any guilt now that they are grown men. One day, as Diana is helping Michael to close up the houses of clients for whom he is a caretaker, she sees a framed photograph on a bedside cabinet and recognizes the man in the picture as Poe. Diana is disturbed to finally know that the real name of the boy who raped her is Henry Shoemaker. She tries unsuccessfully to put him out of her mind and begins researching him and his family. Michael asks what she is planning to do with this information, but she doesn’t answer. Diana leaves Provincetown and travels to Emlen Academy.

Back in the present moment, Hal has volunteered to host a party for the parents from Beatrice’s school, and Daisy is saddled with the task of organizing and catering for the event. She makes a lot of effort with her appearance in an attempt not to seem inadequate, but she still feels out of place, embarrassed by Beatrice and her unorthodox interests, and self-conscious about her own lack of a university education or any career accomplishments. While in this negative mindset, Daisy walks in on Hal silently confronting her catering assistant and accusing her of stealing cash from his desk—cash that Daisy herself had borrowed. She realizes that Hal is drinking for the first time since she met him. He defends himself, but Daisy is left wondering whether she really knows her husband at all.

Later, Beatrice is on her way to school when she runs into Cade, who persuades her to skip school with him. She takes him to the Mutter Museum of medical oddities, one of her favorite places in Philadelphia. Cade tells Beatrice that she is brave for not caring what other people think and not wanting to be like everyone else. They talk about the various museums and authors they like, and Cade brings up the incident that got Beatrice expelled from Emlen. He asks if the incident really happened how she claims. Beatrice reveals that her friend Tricia, who was raped, refused to tell the school what had happened because she thought that no one would believe her. Cade asks if Tricia was confused and speculates that the boy in question might have been getting mixed messages from her. Beatrice defends her friend and argues for a woman’s right to change her mind. Before the conversation becomes a true argument, Cade concedes to Beatrice, and she ends up feeling warmly toward him.

Diana goes to Daisy’s house for dinner on a night that Hal is away and meets Beatrice. The two get on well. Diana and Daisy get into a routine of meeting to cook together or go on walks and talk about all aspects of their lives. Hal has been in a bad mood since the party, and he and Daisy even argued the night before about a local politician who became a casualty of the #MeToo Movement. In the argument, Hal equated unwanted sexual advances with innocent flirting, but Daisy stood up for the women who accused the politician.

Now, Daisy and Diana discuss how the #MeToo Movement is beginning to change things for men who have always gotten away with crimes of sexual assault. Diana reveals that she herself was once raped and tells Daisy how it changed her life and how Michael helped her to come to terms with it. Diana is on the brink of telling Daisy something important about the summer she was raped when Daisy gets a phone call from Beatrice’s school, revealing that Beatrice had been absent all day. Daisy panics when she is unable to contact her daughter. She and Diana rush to find Beatrice. They eventually get through to her on the phone and find out that she is safe. They pick her up from school together.

Diana returns to her apartment and contemplates how she has lost control of events. She wanted to confront the men who hurt her, and she never foresaw the sympathy she would develop for the women in their lives. She calls Michael and tells him about her struggle. He tells her to come home, but she says that she can’t because she still has work to do.