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A Summer Story

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A Summer Story

A Summer Story is an emotionally gripping tale about romantic love. Set in England in 1902, it is based on Apple Tree by John Galsworthy. It offers a bittersweet anatomy of the mysteries of love and romantic desire. It portrays how compelling physical and emotional attraction my initially obscure and override social considerations, only to reappear later on and play havoc with a relationship.
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Plot Summary

The movie starts out with a young barrister Mr. Ashton and his best friend romping around the English countryside. They are forced to take temporary lodging at a farm after spraining his ankle. There Ashton meets the young innocent orphan, Megan who lives with her aunt's family who own the farm. Megan is fully charmed by Frank's elegant behavior, poetic inspiration and genuine attraction for her. In a natural and yet extremely nuanced way, she conveys all the intimacies, exhilarations, secrecy, and daring involved in passionate love. Frank is infatuated by Megan's natural beauty and sincere behavior, unadorned by fancy dress or fine manners. After confessing their mutual affection, they have a brief love affair, before Megan's aunt senses coming trouble and asks Frank to leave. Frank tells Megan he will go to the nearest town, Torquay, to draw some money from the bank and then return to take her back with him to London and eventually make her his wife.

On reaching Torquay, Frank goes to the bank and is told it will take at least five hours to get the necessary telegraphic confirmation from his bank in London, which means he will miss the train back to Megan and be late for their rendezvous. Meanwhile he runs into an old college friend and his friend's beautiful, flirtatious sister Stella. They compel him to spend the intervening time in their company, during which Stella develops an attraction for Frank. Frank returns to the bank that afternoon to find that the telegram has not yet arrived, so he is forced to remain the night in Torquay and hope to catch the last train of the week the following morning. He and Stella spend the evening together and begin to develop feelings for one another. Frank knew that he was honor bound to return for Megan after promising to do so, but the longer he was away from her and the more time he spent with Stella, the more he became conscious of the great social distance separating him from the beautiful country lass and the less eager he was to live up to his promise. The next day he finds that Megan has travelled all the way to Torquay in the hope of locating him, but the cowardly Ashton hides instead of facing the broken-hearted girl.

Twenty years later, he returns to the farm accompanied by Stella, whom he has married. He learns that when Megan returned to the farm from Torquay, she discovered she was pregnant and died giving birth to Frank's child. A timeless story of love and a powerful parable on the importance of decisions, "A Summer Story" tells how our choices can forever alter the course of our lives.

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Directed by Piers Haggard
Written by John Galsworthy (story) and Penelope Mortimer (writer)
Starring James Wilby as Mr. Ashton, Imogen Stubbs as Megan David, Sophie Ward as Stella Halliday
Copyright belongs to Atlantic Entertainment Group

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