Tove Jansson's beloved 1972 novel The Summer Book (Sommarboken) would seem to pose a number of challenges for a film adaptation, particularly the fact that it does not have an overarching plot or really any kind of narrative structure. Rather, the semi-autobiographical novel is more like a series of scenes or short stories built around two characters'”a grandmothers and her 6-year-old daughter'”on a remote island that is part of the Gulf of Finland's archipelagos. As it is fundamentally episodic, it doesn't lend itself to rising action or developing drama; rather, it just moves along like life itself.