SUMMARY to the Lighthouse is divided into three sections: The Window, Time Passes, and The Lighthouse. Each section is fragmented into stream-of- consciousness contributions from various narrators. The first section, "The Window," opens just before the start of World War I. Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay bring their eight children to their summer home on an island in the Hebrides. Across the bay from their house stands a large lighthouse. Six-year- old James Ramsay wants desperately to go to the lighthouse, and his mother tells him that they will go the next day if the weather permits. James reacts gleefully, but his father tells him coldly that the weather looks to be foul. James resents Mr. Ramsay, and believes that he enjoys being cruel to James and his siblings.The Ramsays hosts a number of guests, including the dour Charles Tansley, who admires Mr. Ramsay's work as a metaphysical philosopher. Also at the house is Lily Briscoe, a young painter who begins a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay wants Lily to marry William Bankes, but Lily resolves to remain single. Mrs. Ramsay does manage to arrange another marriage, however, between Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle.
             During the course of the afternoon, Paul proposes to Minta, Lily begins her painting, Mrs. Ramsay soothes the resentful James, and Mr. Ramsay frets over his shortcomings as a philosopher, periodically turning to Mrs. Ramsay for comfort. That evening, the Ramsay's host a seemingly ill-fated dinner party. Paul and Minta are late returning from their walk on the beach with two of the Ramsay's children. Lily bristles at outspoken comments made by Charles Tansley, who suggests that women can neither paint nor write. Mr. Ramsay reacts rudely when Augustus Carmichael asks for a second plate of soup. As the night draws on, however, these missteps right themselves and the guests come together to make a memorable evening. The joy, like the party itself, cannot last and as Mrs. Ramsay le...