On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the forty-fourth year. He is a retired professional with a failing memory, but still as tart tongued and observant as ever. Ethel is the perfect foil for Norman, delighting in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together.

Ethel and Norman are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daugther and her fiance, who hurries to Europe and leaves his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple has longed for, and Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him while learning about modern teenage-awareness in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, Ethel and Norman know that time is against them; but the years have been good and perhaps another summer on Golden Pond still waits.