Summer Reading is the story of three women whose disparate lives intersect in the Hamptons. Lissy Snyder is a beautiful, emotionally needy newlywed and the unwilling stepmother to her husbands hostile children. Her eavesdropping housekeeper, Michelle, resents the moneyed arrogance around her. Bookish Angela Graves, leader of The Page Turners book discussion group, harbors a shameful memory of a disastrous affair she had long ago. As summer progresses, Angela encourages her book group to identify with the heroines of novels by Trollope, Flaubert, and Charlotte Bront. But can reading really influence the choices people make and even change the course of lives?