What Happens in One Summer?
The complete story of One Summer, from the first scene to the last, in 312 words (about 1 minute). Spoilers throughout.
Spoilers ahead
Sixteen-year-old Billy Rizley struggles with a bleak existence in Liverpool, trapped in a cycle of poverty, a broken home, and delinquency. Alongside his friend Icky, Billy spends his days truanting school and clashing with local gangs, leaving him on the verge of incarceration due to his probation status. In a desperate bid for escape, the duo decides to run away to Wales, a place where Billy holds a few precious happy memories from a previous school trip.
Their journey is chaotic; they leap from a moving train to avoid conductors and cause mayhem in rural villages, including a joyriding incident in a stolen tractor. After failing to find a permanent campsite, they are briefly sheltered by a farmer before fleeing from the police. Eventually, they encounter Kidder, a reclusive artist and former teacher living as a hermit in an old cottage. Though initially reluctant, Kidder allows them to stay. Over time, a bond forms as the boys help with chores and Kidder begins teaching the illiterate Icky how to read.
While in Wales, Billy enters a romantic relationship with a bright girl named Jo. However, the peace is disrupted when Icky brings school acquaintances to the house, leading to vandalism and theft. As the summer progresses, the dynamics shift; Icky, feeling restless and jealous, returns to Liverpool, where his life ends tragically in a car crash following a gang conflict.
The climax occurs when Billy discovers the truth about Kidder’s past: he had been imprisoned and lost his career due to a consensual relationship with a male student. Despite initial confusion, Billy finds solace and perspective through Jo. In a final act of loyalty, Billy defends Kidder from abusive police officers who come searching for him. Ultimately, Billy is arrested for violating his probation and is forced to return to his grim reality in Liverpool, marking the end of his brief sanctuary.
One Summer Timeline: Every Key Event in Order
22 key events in the order they happen, from “A Troubled Life in Liverpool” to “The Summer in Wales Ends”. 22 events name a place, across 13 locations.
- 1
A Troubled Life in Liverpool
Sixteen-year-old Billy Rizley lives in abject poverty on a squalid council estate in Liverpool, with an absent father, an older sister who despises him, and a mother weighed down by depression. Billy and his slightly dimwitted friend Icky have truanted from school for some time and fallen into a life of delinquency, stealing, fighting local gangs and getting into trouble with the police. With Billy already on probation, it seems only a matter of time before his life of crime and violence results in his incarceration.
Where:Liverpool
- 2
Turned Away from School
Billy and Icky decide to go back into school solely so they can join the school camping trip to Wales, the place of Billy's last happy memories from a trip some years earlier. Their teacher rebuffs the pair, leaving them with no legitimate way to make the journey with the school.
Where:Liverpool
- 3
Running Away to Wales
With no direction or prospects in life, the boys resolve to travel to Wales by themselves. To facilitate the trip, Billy steals some money from his depressed and uncaring mother. For Billy, Wales represents the last place he ever felt truly happy.
Where:Liverpool
- 4
Leaping from the Moving Train
The boys travel into Wales beyond the limit of their rail tickets. When the train conductors attempt to detain them, they escape by leaping from the moving train, cutting themselves loose from any adult supervision and beginning their unsupervised adventure.
Where:The train to Wales
- 5
Tractor Rampage in the Village
With the train out of reach, the boys continue their journey on foot through the Welsh countryside, showing little regard or understanding of their new rural surroundings, a stark contrast to the urban environment they come from. They later steal a tractor and use it for joyriding, causing havoc in a local village.
Where:The Welsh countryside
- 6
The Old Camp Site
Billy eventually finds the location of the school camp he attended years earlier, only to realise it is just a bare hillside stretch of land rather than a permanent camp site. His attempts to recreate the camp environment he remembers end in frustration and disappointment.
Where:The old school camp site
- 7
A Night at the Farmhouse
Looking for somewhere to sleep, the boys try to find shelter for the night in a barn at a secluded farm. The farmer and his wife catch them, but take pity on the pair and let them spend the night in the house. In the morning, Billy and Icky make a quick getaway from the farmhouse when the police arrive.
Where:A secluded farm
- 8
Meeting Kidder the Hermit
Wandering through the countryside, the boys come across an old cottage they initially believe is deserted, and come face to face with Kidder, the man who lives there. Kidder lives the life of a self-sufficient hermit, working as an artist who sells his paintings at the local market, and keeping livestock and growing his own food. He reluctantly allows the boys to stay for one night, telling them they have to leave after that.
Where:Kidder's cottage
- 9
Broken Plates and Stolen Replacements
Hoping to change Kidder's mind about letting them stay, the boys begin doing chores around the house and the grounds. While washing the dishes in the river, Icky breaks all of Kidder's plates. The boys set out to find replacements and end up stealing some plates from a nearby house.
Where:Kidder's cottage
- 10
Defending the Cottage from Vandals
When the boys return to the cottage, they find a gang of local Welsh youths vandalising Kidder's house and chase them off. Kidder softens towards them and eventually agrees to let them stay. Billy, however, is later beaten up by the local gang in retaliation.
Where:Kidder's cottage
Show the other 12 events of One Summer Hide the last 12 events
- 11
Icky Learns to Read
Kidder discovers that Icky is illiterate and, being a former schoolteacher, begins teaching him how to read. The lessons mark the beginning of a genuine bond of trust and care between the hermit and the two boys.
Where:Kidder's cottage
- 12
A Drunken Party Disaster
While Billy and Kidder are away at the local market, Icky goes out on his own and discovers the boys and teachers from his school are now camping at the very site he and Billy had come to Wales to find. He brings some of the boys back to Kidder's house, where they get drunk and vandalise the place. One of the boys, Rabbit, steals Kidder's money from a drawer.
Where:The school camp site and Kidder's cottage
- 13
Billy Meets Jo
At the local market, Billy meets Jo, a pretty and intelligent girl from a middle-class family who only live in Wales during each summer. Their encounter plants the seed of a connection that will grow over the rest of the summer.
Where:The local market
- 14
Taking Back the Money
When Billy gets back to the house, he finds Icky sleeping off a hangover and Kidder's money gone. They go to the camp site and get the money back from Rabbit, threatening him not to reveal to anyone where they are living.
Where:The school camp site
- 15
Kidder's Handmade Books
As a gesture of friendship and acceptance, Kidder gives the boys handmade books that he wrote and illustrated for them about their adventures together. The gift marks how far they have come from being unwelcome intruders to becoming part of Kidder's life.
Where:Kidder's cottage
- 16
Romance at the Local Dance
One night, the three of them go to a local dance where Billy sees Jo again, and the two begin a romantic relationship. Icky grows jealous and restless at being left out, and decides to return to Liverpool alone.
When:Night Where:Local dance
- 17
Stolen Car Trouble in Southport
Back in Liverpool, Icky joins the gang from school as they steal a car and drive to Southport. While there, they again come into conflict with a rival Liverpudlian gang, and Rabbit stabs one of its members.
Where:Southport
- 18
Icky's Fatal Crash
Icky later abandons the gang and tries to drive the stolen car back toward Wales. He is chased by the police and is killed when he crashes the car. His death brings the boys' dream of an idyllic Welsh summer to a devastating end.
Where:The road from Liverpool to Wales
- 19
Kidder's Secret Past Revealed
The local police come looking for Billy at Kidder's house, and while hiding from them, Billy overhears their conversation. He learns that Kidder is gay and once had a consensual affair with an 18-year-old male student at the school where he worked, which was a criminal offence at the time. Kidder lost his teaching job and served a prison sentence for it, and a distraught Billy runs away from the house.
Where:Kidder's cottage
- 20
Jo's Comfort by the Lake
Billy finds Jo and pours out his distress, and she reasons with him, dispelling his homophobic thoughts about Kidder and his past. Comforted and reassured by her understanding, Billy and Jo then make love near a lake, cementing their romance.
Where:Near a lake
- 21
Billy Comes to Kidder's Defence
When Billy returns to the house, he sees two police officers from Liverpool who have come to take him back home because he has broken the conditions of his probation. The officers begin assaulting Kidder to make him tell them where Billy is. Rather than run away, Billy comes to Kidder's defence and stops the police from hurting him further.
Where:Kidder's cottage
- 22
The Summer in Wales Ends
Billy is taken back to his grim life in Liverpool by the police officers, and his summer in Wales is over. What began as a runaway escape from a broken home has given him fleeting freedom, friendship and first love before returning him, at least for now, to the life he was trying to leave behind.
Where:Liverpool
Quiz
How well do you remember One Summer? Test yourself on the story.
