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, who has a talent for getting away with mischief through his sincere, disarming charisma. 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 envies Finny's astonishing athletic abilities, and he …showed first 75 words of 11622 total…

…showed last 75 words of 11622 total…a defense mechanism to shield him from the reality of not being able to participate in world events because of his leg. After this, he and Gene no longer have the crutch of their private peace and hopes for the 1944 Olympics. They reminisce fondly about their former delusions at one point and try to recapture something of their protective quality in retrospect, but Finny stresses that above all else, they must believe in each other (