A Summer Story

A Summer Story is a 1988 British drama film directed by Piers Haggard and written by Penelope Mortimer, based on John Galsworthy’s 1916 short story "The Apple Tree". Starring James Wilby, Imogen Stubbs and Susannah York, the plot takes place in 1902 and 1920, wherein a young gentleman visiting a rural area had an intense love affair with a village girl. Eighteen years later, he is passing that way again.

In the summer of 1902, Frank Ashton, an educated young barrister from London, is on a walking holiday in Devon with a friend. When he falls and twists his ankle, Ashton is helped at a nearby farmhouse in Dartmoor and stays there for a few days to recover, while his friend goes on. During his stay, he quickly falls for the village girl who looks after him, Megan David. Joe Narracombe, Megan's cousin who is wary of refined men like Ashton, wants Megan for himself. Ashton, seeking ways to get close to Megan, goes to the local sheep shearing festivities and learns to shear his first sheep. That night, Megan professes she returns Ashton's feelings and they consummate their relationship.

After a fight with Joe over Megan, Ashton leaves the farm and makes arrangements to meet again with her. He takes the train to the seaside resort town of Torquay to cash a cheque at a bank, after promising to return the next morning and take Megan away with him and marry her. On arrival in the town, Ashton finds a branch of his bank, but it will not cash his cheque, insisting on first contacting his branch in London. Ashton agrees to wait in town until the bank can be contacted. While walking around, Ashton runs into Halliday, an old school friend staying at a local hotel with his three sisters. The eldest of Halliday's sisters, Stella, takes a liking to Ashton. Thanks to the bank's delays, Ashton misses the train he needed to make his rendezvous with Megan.

When Halliday asks why Ashton is so anxious, Ashton tells him about Megan and how he can't live without her. Halliday cautions Ashton against rash decisions when it comes to love, warning him that he is getting caught up in the idealism of romance rather than reality, including the fact that he would be uprooting Megan from the only home she knows.

The following day, Ashton spends more time with Halliday and his sisters. Stella flirts with him, suggesting his missed train must have been due to fate. He begins to have second thoughts about marrying Megan. Back in Dartmoor, Megan holds onto the hope that Ashton will return for her and she goes to wait at a rendezvous spot they had agreed upon. After hours of waiting for him with no success, she decides to travel to Torquay to look for Ashton.

While talking with Stella on the beach, Ashton suddenly sees Megan walking amongst the crowds. He makes up a ruse to send Stella back to the hotel, then follows the unsuspecting Megan. He trails her down a street, nearly catching up to her. Right as she is about to turn around, she almost catches a glimpse of Ashton, but he hides behind a building until she is gone.

Eighteen years later, Ashton is married to Stella and they are motoring through Devon. They have no children. Ashton visits the farm where he seduced Megan and is greeted by Jim, a farm hand he befriended long ago. Ashton learns that Megan returned to Dartmoor heartbroken about losing him. She died soon after giving birth to a son, whom she named "Francis," or Frank. Ashton is taken to see Megan's grave, which is at the spot where they had first met. She had asked to be buried there, to wait for his return. As he motors away with Stella, Ashton passes by a young man who is herding sheep. The man gives a friendly smile to Ashton, and as he leaves, he realizes it is Megan's son Frank.

In 1946, Jesse L. Lasky announced he would make a film of the story from a script by DeWitt Bodeen at RKO, but nothing came of it. In 1969, Kenneth Hyman said he wanted to make his directorial debut with a film version of the story, which would be made for under $800,000, but again no movie resulted.