This study guide was created using the following version of this book: Wood, Lucy. Weathering. Bloomsbury. 2016.

Weathering is a novel about Ada, a 34-year-old woman, who returns home with her young daughter Pepper after her mother Pearl’s death. Ada wants to repair Pearl’s house and sell it and move on from the remote area that is at the mercy of the weather and the river that runs along the property.

While at home, she reconnects with people from her past. She ends up working part-time in a pub as a waitress and a cook. At home, she struggles with the repairs around the house. The electricity and gas both need work, the chimney is blocked with bird nests, and there is rarely hot water. She meets Tristan, a twenty-something man who begins to help her with projects around the house.

As Ada begins to sort through Pearl’s belongings, she begins to see her mother’s ghost and interact with her. But Ada is not the only one Pearl communicates with. As Pepper begins to explore the river and take pictures of birds like her grandmother did, Pearl appears to her as an old woman. She helps Pepper learn to use her old camera and later alerts Ada when Pepper gets hurt along the river.

As winter settles in and torrential rain turns to heavy snow, Ada insists that she and Pepper will not be staying long. A local man comes to look at the property, but assesses it as too much work to repair. Tristan continues to help Ada with repairs and they begin a relationship. Even though Ada begins to have feelings for Tristan, she reminds him that they do not have a future because she will be leaving.

Throughout the novel, Pearl’s death is gradually revealed as she makes her way down the river, fighting the strong current sending her out to sea. Ada begins to understand her mother’s connection to the property the longer she stays. While she continues to insist that she will not stay long at the house, she enrolls Pepper in school and shows an aptitude at the pub.

When a heavy snowstorm comes along, Ada treks to visit Luke, an older man who befriended her mother. She takes him food to help him weather the storm, but soon realizes that he is better equipped to handle the storm than she is. He sends her on her way with more supplies and a piece of a bread starter that Pearl had one given him.

After Ray reconsiders the house, he returns to make an offer. He tries to buy the house under asking price, but Ada holds her ground. When Ray finally offers her full price, she tells him that she has changed her mind and decided to stay.

As the snow begins to melt and the rains return, the house floods and Ada learns about how the river took her mother. As the novel concludes, Pearl’s ghost leaves the house and she begins to taste the saltwater as the river sends her into the sea.