Plot+Summary

The story begins with the Tallis household in 1935, during which the Tallis' had many guests staying at the house. Cecilia Turner, who has grown up with Robbie Turner, a young man who works for their family, struggles to understand her feelings for Robbie. When Briony, Cecilia's younger sister, is given a note from Robbie intended for Cecilia, (however, he has sent the wrong copy of the letter), Briony reads it and finds to her horror that Robbie is, in her opinion, a perverted 'maniac'. Briony finds the two of them in the library and believes that Robbie has forced himself on her older sister, and further inclines her to believe that she saw Robbie raping Lola, her cousin, later that night when everyone was supposed to be out looking for Lola's twin brothers. Everyone believes Briony's accusations, with the exceptions of Cecilia and Robbie's mother, and so Robbie is sent to jail.

Cecilia continues loving Robbie, and they write letters to each other while Robbie is in jail. When Robbie finally gets out, he only has a brief meeting with her before he has to leave for the war. They continue to write to each other during the war and both begin to contemplate the thought of forgiving Briony for her crime. In the meantime, Briony has also realized that she has wrongly accused Robbie, and that Robbie was not the rapist, and decides she will confess her wrong-doings to atone for her crime. Briony tells Cecilia of her plan through a letter, but Cecilia refuses to respond to the letter. Robbie returns home from the war safely, and shortly after, Robbie and Cecilia have an unexpected meeting with Briony, in which they still refuse to forgive Briony, regardless of her plans to try and make things right. They give her the tasks of confessing her sins, writing a letter to her parents, and also writing a detailed letter as to why she accused Robbie of the first place. The novel ends many years later in 1999, when Briony is in London and near losing her memory (she is 77) and contemplates the atonement she had been seeking out for many years.