The prep school Gene Forrester attended as a teenager, the Devon School in New Hampshire, welcomes him back after 15 years. Gene is now in his 30s. He halts at Devon’s main structure and examines a flight of marble stairs, noting with astonishment that they are considerably smaller than he recalls. But at the same time, he is aware that they haven’t changed at all and that he is the one who has. This is what he is thinking as he crosses campus to examine a sizable tree by the Devon River. He is once more surprised to see that it is much smaller and less significant than he remembered.Given that he can now see that he has matured and gained new insights into the struggles he encountered as a teenager, he is happy to have come to Devon.

Following Gene’s epiphany, the action jumps to 1942, when he is preparing to begin his final year of high school. While the Second World War rages abroad, Gene, a diligent and intelligent student, and Finny, an athletic and carefree roommate, are attending Devon’s summer session. Finny, Gene, and a few other classmates gather one day under a large tree near the river. This tree is used by the school as part of its “physical hardening” programme, which aids seniors in getting ready for the military. As part of the programme, participants climb the tree and daringly jump from its top branch into the river, clearing the bank en route.Finny climbs the tree and jumps, something that only the seniors have done. Gene continues despite being afraid. As this behaviour becomes ingrained over time, Finny suggests that he and Gene establish a group they’ll call the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Jumping off of the tree is one of the requirements for entering this secret group.

More crucially, since the Super Suicide Society meets every evening, Finny and Gene always begin each meeting by taking the plunge themselves, which requires Gene to swallow his fear frequently.Gene and Finny get closer as the summer goes on. But Gene also develops a strong dislike for Finny, jealous of his physical abilities and believing that his best buddy is deliberately trying to keep him from his studies. This is what he believes because one day, the day before he has a crucial trigonometry exam, Finny persuades him to take their bikes to the beach. Gene agrees to Finny’s suggestion even though he would rather study. The two boys have a great time and end up sharing a bed on the sand.Before they go to sleep, as they gaze at the stars, Finny declares that Gene is his best friend. Gene wants to say the same thing, but he can’t bring himself to say it.

The following day, they squeak back to university in time for Gene to take his test, which he dreadfully fails. Because of this, he secretly accuses Finny of diverting him, coming to the conclusion that Finny is out to ruin his academic career because he considers him a rival.Gene discovers one night that Finny doesn’t genuinely feel the way he thinks he does—that he wants to obstruct his studies. He reacts violently when Finny pulls him away from his study to go to the tree. Finny replies that if that’s what he wants, he should keep concentrating on his academics; if Finny had Gene’s level of intelligence, he would, too, he claims. The fact that Finny doesn’t view Gene as a rival is demonstrated by this compliment, and Gene bitterly assumes that this is because Finny doesn’t think Gene is competent enough to be his opponent. He reluctantly accompanies Finny to the tree where Finny advises they leap at the same time.Gene hangs onto the trunk and jiggles the limb while Finny steps out onto the branch, which causes Finny to become unsteady.

After turning around and looking Gene in the eyes for a terrifying split second, Finny collapses to the ground, breaking his leg and his sports career.Gene visits Finny later, when he is in the hospital, to see if he has any suspicions about him. At first, Finny implies that he does believe Gene might have contributed to his collapse, but he quickly retracts that assertion, blaming himself for making such irrational assumptions. Dr. Stanpole, who is in charge of Devon’s infirmary, intervenes and orders Gene to go as he stands up from his seat in shock and prepared to tell Finny the truth. Shortly after this conversation, Finny is returned home, and the summer session comes to an end.Just one month of his summer vacation is spent with his family before he heads back to Devon. He visits Finny on the way home and admits guilt for causing his friend’s injury. Finny doesn’t buy it, but Gene continues vehemently maintaining that he’s to blame.

Eventually, Finny urges him to stop talking and issues a death threat if he continues. Gene apologises and claims that he is unable to speak clearly because he is too exhausted from his journey to see that what he is doing is simply making Finny’s situation worse. When he eventually makes it back to Devon, he discovers that the regular masters’ severe rule has taken the place of the summer session’s laxity.As the senior boys’ awareness of the war grows, Gene is eventually persuaded to enlist by a boy by the name of Brinker Hadley after the bulk of their class offers to help clear snow from some nearby railroad tracks because so many of the town’s workers had left for the war. The very next day, Gene and Brinker resolve to enlist in the military, but when Gene gets back to his room and sees Finny at his desk, he loses all motivation to actually carry out this plan. The following morning, Brinker comes into Gene and Finny’s room and continues his running joke about how Gene deliberately caused Finny to trip and fall so he could have their entire dorm room to himself.Gene diverts Finny by responding that Brinker wants him to enrol when he inquires about what Brinker is discussing. This surprises Finny, who displays disappointment on his face at the thought that Gene would ever wish to leave him behind. When Gene notices this, he turns on Brinker and declares that he would never join with him, which makes Finny very pleased.

Leper Lepellier, a mild-mannered buddy of Finny and Gene, joins the military, though, and abruptly leaves the school to support the war effort.Gene has concluded that activities like sports seem inconsequential in light of the war after Finny’s injuries, but Finny counters that the war is only an invention of chubby old guys who wish to control the younger generation. Soon after, Finny persuades Gene to begin preparing for the Olympics, which was once Finny’s goal. The two boys reestablish their friendship as Gene’s training progresses, and Gene experiences an inner calm that he has never before known. Finny suggests that the boys have a Winter Carnival one day, where they engage in boisterous snow play, sip hard cider, and take part in a general atmosphere of youthful mischief that is, on the whole, pretty benign in comparison to the war.It’s a huge success up until Gene receives a message from Leper. The message informs Gene that Leper has left the military and requests that he meet him right away at his Vermont home.

When Gene gets to Leper’s home, he finds out that Leper left the military in order to avoid being discharged for developing a mental illness. Leper explains to Gene that he began having hallucinations as a result of the strains of military life, experiencing bizarre visions that made him scream and cry at random times. He fled away because he understood that getting fired for mental instability would subsequently make it difficult for him to find work. Gene starts to feel uneasy as he speaks because he understands that the military, to which he and all of his pals are unavoidably destined, isn’t as admirable and satisfying as people would like to believe.As a result, he advises Leper to stop talking, but Leper persists, asserting that Gene has always had something “vile” inside of him. He claims that Gene’s actions are what led to Finny falling from the tree. When Gene overhears this, he slams Leper out of his chair. The two boys later make up, but Gene soon departs, deeply troubled by what Leper has said.

Back at Devon, Brinker starts to wonder why Gene hasn’t enlisted. He speculates that it has to do with Finny’s accident and thinks Gene feels bad about what happened to his best friend and doesn’t want to leave him behind by enlisting. Additionally, after hearing what happened to Leper, Finny and Gene both come to the conclusion that the war is genuine because only something significant could have resulted in someone like Leper experiencing such a negative reaction. Around this moment, Leper is discovered by Finny hiding behind a shrub before entering a classroom. That evening, Gene and Finny are gathered by Brinker and a few other students, who then conduct a fake trial to examine Finny’s fall.They continue, asking Finny about that evening, despite Gene’s objections.

Leper is eventually brought in as a witness, and the details he provides about what transpired inside the tree convince everyone—including Finny—that Gene was the one who intentionally caused the fall. In retaliation, Finny gets up and bolts from the room, running down the hallway before tumbling down the adjacent flight of marble steps and breaking his leg once more.Finny is upset with Gene when he tries to visit him that night in the hospital, so Gene spends the night walking around campus and feeling out of place. The two boys agree that Gene’s actions at the tree were not intentional when he returns to see Finny the next morning. Finny also acknowledges that he had written to numerous military organisations for the entire year in a desperate attempt to locate one that would allow him to help with the war effort. He ultimately made the decision to stop caring about the conflict because they all turned down his demands.

That afternoon, some of Finny’s bone marrow enters his bloodstream, and he passes away. Given that Gene and his companions are going to war, Dr. Stanpole advises Gene to prepare himself for hearing news like this in the future. Gene doesn’t cry, nor does he cry at the funeral since he feels like Finny is now a part of him and he thinks that one doesn’t cry at one’s own funeral, despite this tragic turn of circumstances.After Finny’s passing, Gene and his classmates graduate and enlist in the military’s safest branches. Gene has never been in active duty, but he believes that he fought his own battle at Devon and that he is aware of the resentment that all men feel toward Finny.

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