Plot Summary

Protagonist Charlie Bucktin is a thirteen-year-old boy living in the fictitious rural town of Corrigan in Western Australia. On a summer evening in 1965, Charlie has an unexpected visit from fourteen-year-old Jasper Jones, an outcast in Corrigan due to his mixed White-Aboriginal heritage and rebellious lifestyle. Jasper begs for Charlie's help, and leads him to his private glade in the bush. Here Charlie is horrified to find the dead body of a young girl, Jasper's girlfriend Laura Wishart, battered and hanging from a tree. Jasper, aware that he is likely to be blamed for Laura's murder, convinces Charlie that they should hide the body, so they throw it into a nearby pond, weighted by a large rock.

A search for the missing girl is soon organised, focused on the idea that she may have run away. Jasper is interrogated roughly by the local police, but they soon release him. Meanwhile tension builds in the town, as parents fear more disappearances, and townspeople search for someone to blame.

Charlie spends his days with his best friend Jeffrey Lu, a Vietnamese boy who shares Charlie's love of intellectual banter, and deals stoically with the constant race-hate inflicted on him and his family. Jeffrey is passionate about cricket, but his attempts to join the Corrigan team are thwarted by the racism of the coach and other players. Eventually fortune goes his way, and he finds himself batting in a game against a rival town, watched by Charlie, who has befriended Eliza, Laura Wishart's younger sister. As Jeffrey wins the game on the last ball, Charlie and Eliza hold hands and share their first kiss.

Jasper believes that Laura's murderer is Mad Jack Lionel, a reclusive old man who is rumored to have done terrible things in the past. Jasper determines to confront Lionel, and together with Charlie, goes to his house. Lionel manages to defuse Jasper's aggression, and the truth comes out: Lionel is actually Jasper's grandfather, and when Jasper was a baby, Lionel had crashed his car while racing Jasper's mother to hospital, causing her death. The incident has left him broken, and ostracized by the townspeople.

Late one night, Eliza comes to Charlie's window. They go to Jasper's glade. Here Eliza tells Charlie what she knows of Laura's death: after a violent argument with her abusive father, Laura came looking for Jasper. Eliza followed her to the glade. Finding Jasper away, in despair Laura killed herself, and Eliza could not save her. Charlie then confesses that he and Jasper had thrown Laura's body into the pond.

The next day, Eliza, Jasper, and Charlie go their separate ways. Charlie senses that he’ll never see Jasper again—he’s going to leave Corrigan for good. When Charlie returns, he finds his mother packing to leave Corrigan, too. She’s told Wesley about her affair. Ruth never returns to Corrigan—she lives with her wealthy relatives, not speaking to either Wesley or Charlie. Wesley takes care of Charlie on his own, and finishes the novel he’s been working on. Charlie is the first to read it, and he finds it beautiful and brilliant.

At the end of the novel, Charlie performs a feat of “bravery” that impresses the schoolchildren of Corrigan. He sneaks onto Mad Jack’s property and steals peaches. To impress his peers even more, Charlie stages a “fight” with Jack, promising Jack that he’ll make up the favor by making Jack dinner soon. Charlie walks off of Mad Jack’s property, applauded and cheered by the schoolchildren. Even Warwick Trent acknowledges that Charlie has shown great bravery. Amused, Charlie thinks to himself that it took more bravery for him to pick up the peaches, which were crawling with bugs, than to sneak onto Jack’s property.

Suddenly, someone sees a plume of smoke in the distance. Charlie runs toward the smoke, and sees that Eliza’s house is on fire. Her parents are alive, though her father is in an oxygen mask, with burns on his body. Charlie realizes that it was Eliza who burned the house, and realizes that he’ll never fully understand her motives. He also recognizes that Jasper will be blamed for this act of arson, and forced to stay away from Corrigan for the rest of his life. This news saddens Charlie, but doesn’t worry him—he knows that Jasper is too clever to be caught by the police. Charlie walks towards Eliza, who continues to look calmly at the fire, and whispers “the perfect words” in her ear.

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