Theme for a Summer / Reunion

Summer 1961. An influx of new men into a small village inspires a group of teenage girls to set up a 'Challenge', the winner to be whoever got off with the greatest number of them before September, by which time they’d all be sixteen, and all be singing along to Helen Shapiro’s ‘Don’t treat me like a child’, to Billy Fury’s ‘Halfway to Paradise’ and to Elvis Presley’s ‘Surrender.’ But the acquisition of experience goes hand in hand with tragedy and heartbreak, not only for Bridie Burdock whose passion for twenty-one year old Irish labourer Sean Donovan is more than reciprocated but in a relationship that cannot continue. Following a five-year separation, a series of barely-believable coincidences results in Bridie meeting up with Sean once again: although their mutual lust is as strong as ever Sean is reluctant to commit until he can be certain that she will cope with marriage, motherhood and participation in the family business, in conjunction with his four brothers.