Plot Overview
Gene Forrester is
a quiet, intellectual student at Devon School in New Hampshire.
During the summer session of 1942, he becomes close friends with
his daredevil roommate Finny, whose innate charisma consistently allows
him to get away with mischief. Finny prods Gene into making a dangerous
jump out of a tree into a river, and the two start a secret society
based on this ritual. Gene gradually begins to envy Finny's astonishing
athletic abilities, manifested in Finny's breaking a school swimming
record on his first try. He thinks that Finny, in turn, envies his
superior academic achievements, and he suspects that his friend
has been taking steps to distract him from his studies. Gene's suspicions
transform into resentful hatred, but he nevertheless carefully maintains
an appearance of friendship.
Gene realizes that he has been grievously mistaken about
the existence of any rivalry between them when, one day, Finny expresses
a sincere desire to see Gene succeed. While still in a state of shock
from the force of his realization, he accompanies Finny to the tree
for their jumping ritual. When Finny reaches the edge of the branch,
Gene's knees bend, shaking the branch and causing Finny to fall
to the bank and shatter his leg. The tragedy is generally considered
an accident, and no one thinks to blame Gene—especially not Finny.
But when the doctor tells Gene that Finny's athletic days are over,
Gene feels a piercing sense of guilt. He goes to see Finny and begins
to admit his part in Finny's fall, but the doctor interrupts him, and
Finny is sent home before Gene gets another chance to confess.
The summer session ends, and Gene goes home to the South
for a brief vacation. On his way back to school, he stops by Finny's house
and explains to his friend that he shook the branch on purpose.
Finny refuses to listen to him, and Gene rescinds his confession and
continues on to school. There, Gene attempts to avoid true athletic
activity by becoming assistant manager of the crew team, but he
feuds with the crew manager and quits. World War II is in full swing
and the boys at Devon are all eager to enlist in the military. Brinker
Hadley, a prominent class politician, suggests to Gene that they
enlist together, and Gene agrees. That night, however, he finds Finny
has returned to school. He consequently abandons his plans to enlist,
as does Brinker. Finny expects Gene to take his place as the school's
sports star now that he is injured. When Gene protests that sports
no longer seem important in the midst of the war, Finny declares
that the war is nothing but a conspiracy to keep young men from
eclipsing the older authorities.
Finny tells Gene that he once had aspirations to go to
the Olympics, and Gene agrees to train for the 1944 Olympics in
his place. All the boys are surprised when a gentle, nature-loving
boy named Leper Lepellier becomes the first one in their class to
enlist. Gene and Finny go on training, shielded within their private
vision of world events. During a winter carnival, which Finny has
organized, a telegram arrives for Gene from Leper, saying that he
has “escaped” and desperately needs Gene to come to his home in
Vermont. Gene goes to Vermont and finds that Leper has gone slightly mad.
Leper, who was present at Finny's accident, reveals that he knows
the truth about what happened. Leper's ranting frightens Gene and
makes him anxious about how he himself might react to military life.
He runs away back to Devon. When Brinker hears of what has happened
to Leper, he laments in front of Finny that Devon has already lost
two of its potential soldiers—Leper and the crippled Finny. Gene,
afraid that Finny will be hurt by this remark, tries to raise his
spirits by getting him to discuss his conspiracy theory again, but
Finny now denies the war only ironically.
Brinker, who has harbored suspicions that Gene might have
been partly responsible for Finny's accident, wants to prove or
disprove them definitively. He organizes an after-hours tribunal
of schoolboys and has Gene and Finny summoned without warning. The boys
on the makeshift tribunal question the two about the circumstances
surrounding the fall. Finny's perceptions of the incident remain
so blurred that he cannot speak conclusively on the matter; Gene
maintains that he doesn't remember the details of it. The boys now
bring in Leper, who was sighted earlier in the day skulking about
the bushes, and Leper begins to implicate Gene. Finny declares that
he does not care about the facts and rushes out of the room. Hurrying
on the stairs, he falls and breaks his leg again.
Gene sneaks over to the school's infirmary that night
to see Finny, who angrily sends him away. Gene wanders the campus
until he falls asleep under the football stadium. The next morning,
he goes to see Finny again, takes full blame for the tragedy, apologizes,
and tries to explain that his action did not arise from hatred.
Finny accepts these statements and the two are reconciled. Later,
as the doctor is operating on Finny's leg, some marrow detaches
from the bone and enters Finny's bloodstream, going directly to
his heart and killing him. Gene receives the news with relative
tranquility; he feels that he has become a part of Finny and will
always be with him. The rest of the boys graduate and go off to
enlist in relatively safe branches of the military. Gene reflects
on the constant enmity that plagues the human heart—a curse from
which he believes that only Finny was immune.
