Chime Summary

Chime begins at what looks like Briony Larkin's end—she is on trial and testifies that she is not innocent, and that she deserves to be hanged. None of this makes much sense without the backstory, but here's a quick breakdown of that:

Briony and Rose are twins whose mother died while giving birth. Years later their father remarries, becomes ill, then stops coming home to be with his family altogether. Meanwhile, with their father out of the picture, their stepmother reveals to Briony that she is a wicked witch who injured her sister in a jealous rage at seven. At some point both girls become ill, and then their stepmother does too after Briony supposedly injures her with a witch-conjured flood.

Eventually the stepmother dies (mysteriously) of arsenic poisoning, and somewhere along the way Briony burns down their library too. Oops.

Back in present time, it has been decided that Eldric Clayborne will live with the Larkins despite the fact that Rose, who seems to have some form of disorder, openly dislikes boys. While Briony is getting to know Eldric, Rose runs away into the swamp.

Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you—they live in a swamp.

So anyway, Briony goes running into the swamp for Rose and Eldric chases after her. They run into a few witches, and later tell the men back at the house about them. The men and Briony decide to go back into the swamp looking for evidence—and when they do, Mr. Drury is attacked and killed.

At his funeral, the ghosts of children who've died of the swamp cough ask Briony to help stop the disease by telling those draining the swamp about the curse of Boggy Mun. Briony is afraid Rose has the swamp cough too, but knows if she tells people will suspect her for what she is: a witch. Briony decides to talk with Boggy Mun, the swamp spirit, who inflicts Rose with the swamp cough and threatens death to Briony if she doesn't stop the swamp draining.

Later, while forming a bad boy fraternity with Eldric, Briony figures out how to save herself from being exposed as a witch and save her sister from the cough. That night Briony blows up the pump that drains the swamp, proving she might be a pyromaniac but also curing everyone's swamp cough. Meanwhile, after the witch sighting, Nelly Daws stands trial as a witch and is found guilty and hanged. She does not turn to dust, however, which proves she was not, in fact, a witch. Bummer.

Rose's cough returns along with everyone else's when the swamp pump starts working. Briony attempts to break the pump again but is caught by Robert and Eldric (who follows Briony stalker-style when he sees her head for the swamps). Eldric promises not to tell on Briony if she helps him get permission to have a party in her father's garden—the party he throws ends up being for Leanne, an older, beautiful, voluptuous girl who makes Briony very jealous.

After being caught out with Eldric on the night of their secret fraternity initiation, Eldric and Briony are no longer encouraged to spend time together and Leanne is chosen as a better influence on Eldric. Briony returns to talk with the Boggy Mun again, and arranges for little Tiddy Rex (friend of Briony's) and Rose to not get sick or die before Halloween. On the way back, the Dead Hand catches her and almost gets her hand, but luckily Eldric was stalking her again and saves her.

Briony's hand is pretty much crushed from her run in with the Dead Hand, and she is in recovery for some time. Eldric visits her daily, sings to her, and even invites her to Blackberry Night.

When Briony does decide to sneak out for Blackberry Night though, she is attacked by Cecil Trumpington, who claims to be in love with her and to want to marry her. He is addicted to arsenic, however, so he tries to rape her instead. Eldric again saves Briony and they share a kiss before she runs away. Soon after this Eldric becomes ill. Briony doesn't visit him, but she does warn that Leanne's visits seem to be draining him.

Once Eldric recovers, the two friends resume boxing and playing in the swamp together. Briony warns Eldric that Leanne is a Dark Muse, a witch that drains men's energy and makes them go mad by having them incessantly work on their art. Though he doesn't believe her at first, he does eventually see Leanne for what she is and kicks her to the curb. Thank goodness, right? Eldric tries to tell Briony he loves her, but she interrupts him to tell him she is a witch and he loses his nerve.

Finally Eldric tells Briony he loves her on Halloween night, but Briony has to run to conjure up the ghosts of the children killed by swamp cough so they can convince the town to stop draining the swamp. Busy, busy.

When she brings the ghosts to talk to the townspeople, they also see Stepmother's risen corpse, which accuses Briony of poisoning her. Briony remembers that she did indeed poison her stepmother and tries to run away, but is followed again by Eldric who loses his hand to the Dead Hand. In order to save Eldric's life, Briony returns to the village where she is put on trial.

Back full circle to the trial where Briony asks to be hanged. Rose, Briony's father, and Eldric come to her rescue when they all confirm that Stepmother was a Dark Muse who was slowly killing Briony's family.

Briony insists that she is a witch and cites that fact that she has second sight (ability to see into the spirit world) as proof. Rose, however, finally reveals a secret she has been forced to keep for years by their evil stepmother: Briony was born a Chime Child, not a witch, since the birth registration has her birthday recorded as between the chimes of midnight. Go Rose.

When Briony is finally released, she is again sick and must recover. More importantly though, she begins to recover from the psychological wounds her evil stepmother inflicted by teaching her she was evil all that time. Briony begins learning to love herself, and Eldric gets up the courage to show his love for her, again. Without meaning to, Briony admits she loves him back and their love begins to heal them both. Aw.