Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary

The island temple, an architectural point of interest, has sadly fallen into disrepair. Angrily slashing the nettles that grow around it, Briony constructs a story. She beheads a whimpering, lying, scheming Lola and those who admire Lola and spread rumors about Briony. Next, she sacrifices the twins, who are incompetent actors. Next playwriting itself is attacked for wasting her time. Flaying the nettles becomes an act of self-purification and rebellion against childhood. In thirteen strokes, Briony is free of her show-off years and reliance on her mother's good opinion. Briony imagines herself at the Berlin Olympics, self-trained, concentrating on each nettle and thinking about how close she came to wasting her life writing plays. Reacting to real sounds from the first bridge, Briony, playing the grand master, refuses to acknowledge her big brother, who surely has come to watch her. He...