On the surface, Summer Storm is a mystery reminiscent of the notorious Montesi case in Italy: the nude body of a beautiful girl is washed up on the beach of an exclusive Spanish resort on the Costa Brava and is discovered one morning by a group of children from the summer colony. But it is much more than a mystery novel: The author attempts to probe the consciences of the wealthy vacationers, whose lives are built on hypocrisy and idleness, and determine what has killed all purpose in life among the privileged classes of contemporary Europe. The unknown victim soon haunts the imagination of the entire colony. The sheltered but undisciplined children who discover the body have encountered for the first time the naked facts of life; the local townspeople and fishermen seek desperately to convince themselves that this is just another shameful crime perpetrated against their Spain by the depraved foreign vacationers in the tent camp on the outskirts of the colony.