The Summer Pact

The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin was published by Ballantine Books in 2024. Giffin, a New York Times best-selling author, is known for bringing a light and effortless tone to her examinations of romance, grief, and personal growth. The Summer Pact explores the nature of friendship and the journey to self-awareness as three friends embark on a journey that will take them to new geographical and emotional territory. On the way, each friend must confront the influences that have shaped their lives and determine what they want for their future. Full of humor and pop-culture allusions and framed as a love letter to the island of Capri, The Summer Pact explores themes of The Power of Friendship, Managing Difficult Family Dynamics, and Self-Awareness as an Aspect of Resilience. 

This guide refers to the 2024 hardcover edition, published by Ballantine Books.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, death by suicide, racism, antigay bias, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The Summer Pact is narrated from the first-person perspectives of friends Hannah Davis, Lainey Lawson, and Tyson Bishop. The chapters rotate between these three points of view throughout the novel. 

Hannah recalls how she met and bonded with her three closest friends during college at the University of Virginia. Hannah, who is from Atlanta, Georgia, and wants nothing more in life than to have a family, feels like the cheerleader of their group. Lainey, from California, is the drama queen who wants to be an actor. Tyson, the son of high-powered Washington, DC, attorneys, is methodical, while Summer MacFarland, an athlete from the Midwest, is ambitious but highly self-critical. Just before graduation, the friends discover that Summer, for reasons they never fully learn, has died by suicide. Overwhelmed by grief, the three surviving friends make a pact—the “Summer Pact”—to call on one another when times get tough.

Ten years later, Hannah finds her fiancé, Grady, cheating on her with another woman. Devastated, she calls Lainey, who skips an audition to fly to Atlanta for moral support. Tyson also flies to Atlanta, even though it means losing his job as a trial lawyer and breaking up with his current girlfriend. Lainey orchestrates revenge on Grady and stands up for Hannah when her mother chastises her for ending her engagement. 

To reassure Hannah that her life isn’t over, Lainey proposes that the friends take a vacation together, the graduation trip they had never been able to take. Each friend chooses a destination. Lainey picks Paris because Hannah has always wanted to go there. Hannah picks Texas so that Lainey can meet her half-sisters, Ashley and Olivia, who don’t know about Lainey or her mother. Tyson chooses the island of Capri, off the coast of Italy, because that was the place Summer wanted to see.

Their visit to Texas is a disaster when Lainey, convinced that she’ll be rejected, has a hostile meeting with her father, his wife, and her half-sister Ashley. The debacle causes Lainey to drink too much and have sex with a man she meets at a bar. Hurt by the confrontation, Lainey wants to end the trip, but Hannah and Tyson persuade her to go to Italy. Hannah sends an apology to Olivia, who wasn’t present at the disastrous meeting, and finds that Olivia is warm and approachable, though not close to her family. Olivia is a professional tennis player currently training in Italy, and after they hit it off in their first conversation, Olivia and Hannah continue to exchange messages.

Capri offers a beautiful escape, and all three of the friends enjoy the walks, dining, and shopping. Hannah polishes her flirting skills when she meets Archie, a charming Scotsman, who invites the friends out to a piano bar. Tyson meets a lovely woman, and Lainey initially jokes about hooking up with Archie’s friend. However, after an unexpected movie role offer for Lainey puts them all in a celebratory mood, Lainey finds Tyson looking at her with a new level of admiration. She, too, begins to view him in a new way. While Hannah lingers over drinks with Archie, Lainey follows Tyson back to their hotel room and launches a seduction by stepping into the shower with him. Tyson is tempted—he feels the attraction between them—but in the end, he decides to be cautious. They cuddle instead, exploring a new kind of intimacy.

Hannah ends her date with Archie when she gets a message from Olivia, who wants to visit Capri the next day. Knowing that Lainey might not yet be ready to meet her other sister, Hannah decides to meet Olivia herself. They spend the day together, and Hannah is surprised to feel a growing attraction. Meanwhile, Lainey and Tyson enjoy their day together, but when Lainey learns who Hannah is with, she becomes angry and storms away. Meeting up with a pair of strangers, Lainey crashes a party on a yacht and begins drinking heavily, determined to forget what feels like her friend’s betrayal.

Hannah and Tyson spend the night frantically searching for Lainey. With the help of the hotel’s concierge, they find her in a local hospital with a broken arm and alcohol poisoning. Lainey waits for her friends to judge her, but they are simply happy to see her alive. Tyson suggests that Lainey get help with her alcohol use, and Hannah admits that she has developed feelings for Olivia. They all agree that, despite the obstacles, they’ve kept their pact.

An Epilogue that takes place a year later finds the friends finally taking their trip to Paris. Lainey has signed up for a rehab program, is pursuing sobriety, and agrees to run a marathon in Summer’s memory. Hannah has moved to Texas, has opened her own business, and is happily dating Olivia, who arrives in Paris to join them. Just outside the Eiffel Tower, Tyson, who has left his law career to teach high school English, proposes to Lainey. She accepts, and Hannah reflects on how far all of them have come on their journey toward happiness.