All Summer In A Day

The story is about a class of school children on Venus, which in this story is a world of constant rainstorms, where the sun is only visible for one hour every seven years.

One of the children, Margot, moved to Venus from Earth five years earlier, and she is the only one in her class to remember sunshine, since the sun shone regularly on Earth. She describes the sun as "a penny", or "like a fire in the stove", and the other children, being too young ever to have seen it themselves, refuse to believe her account of it. She is bullied and ostracized by the other students and is locked in a closet.

As the sun is about to appear, their teacher arrives to take the class outside to enjoy their only hour of sunshine and, in their astonishment and joy, they all forget about Margot. They run, play, skip, jump, and prance about, savoring every second of their newly found freedom. "It's much better than sun lamps!" one of them cries.

Suddenly, a girl feels a raindrop on her face. Thunder sounds, and they run back inside. At this point one of them remembers Margot who is still locked in the closet. Ashamed they let her out of the closet standing frozen, ashamed for what they have done,and unable to "meet each others glances."

The precious sun has come and gone and, because of their despicable act, Margot who loved the sun the most has missed it.