Intermezzo by Sally Rooney: A People-First Study Guide

Name: Intermezzo
Author: Sally Rooney

Spoiler Alert: This guide contains full plot details from Intermezzo. If you haven't read the book yet, you may want to start with the Chapter 1 summary.

Quick Facts

Author: Sally Rooney
Publication Year: 2024
Genre: Literary Fiction
Setting: Contemporary Ireland, mainly Dublin and rural towns
Narrator: Third-person limited, shifting between Peter, Ivan, and Margaret

Short Summary

Peter and Ivan Koubek have just buried their father. Peter, a Dublin lawyer in his thirties, numbs his grief with pills and alcohol while entangled with his chronically ill first love, Sylvia, and a much younger college student, Naomi. Ivan, a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player, stumbles into an intense secret romance with Margaret, a woman fourteen years his senior navigating her own fractured past. As the brothers drift further apart—clashing over loyalty, class, and the “normality” of Ivan's relationship—each must confront the raw edges of loss and desire. Their parallel journeys toward connection, forgiveness, and the acceptance of complicated love form the core of Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo.

Full Summary

Intermezzo opens with an epigraph from Wittgenstein contrasting grief and chess, a tension that saturates the novel. Just after their father’s funeral, Peter visits his young lover Naomi in an illegal basement flat. He confesses the death, while she admits to selling explicit photos during his absence. That same evening he dines with Sylvia, his former partner who now lives with chronic pain. Peter weeps over his inability to know his father and asks to sleep on Sylvia’s couch, revealing a life tangled between past and present.

Ivan, meanwhile, attends a simultaneous chess exhibition in a small town. He defeats ten opponents, and Margaret, a staff member, is moved by his gentleness. She gives him a lift; they share drinks and confessions before ending up at his damp holiday cottage. Despite nerves, they kiss and sleep together. For Margaret, the encounter feels like her ordinary life slipping free of its netting.

Peter’s days spiral through alprazolam, court appearances, and university teaching. He sends Naomi money, battles suicidal thoughts, and drifts between her squalid squat—where an eviction notice looms—and Sylvia’s apartment, where physical intimacy is impossible. He tells Sylvia he loves her, but his guilt and internal contradictions deepen.

Margaret hesitates before calling Ivan, yet their connection grows quickly. She brings him to her cottage; they make love and walk through the countryside. Ivan tells her that his brother’s judgments don’t matter, but Margaret worries what her ex-husband and the world will think. Back in Dublin, Peter rescues Naomi after an arrest during an eviction, using his privilege to secure her release. She asks to be “used” in bed but stresses she feels safe. Peter invites her to live with him, all while hearing the refrain that he wishes he were dead.

The brothers meet for lunch. The conversation disintegrates when Ivan reveals that his girlfriend is thirty-six and separated. Peter questions her motives, and Ivan storms out into the rain, concluding that Peter is fundamentally a bad person. Margaret and Ivan swim in icy water at the coast. She tells him about her ex-husband’s alcoholism, and Ivan insists that their relationship makes him happy.

Peter apologises to Ivan by text but remains blocked. He bickers with his mother Christine about family tensions. At home, Naomi and Peter discuss his emotional distance; she expresses gratitude for his care. Meanwhile, gossip about Ivan and Margaret starts to spread after a chess club captain sees them. Margaret feels exposed yet cannot reclaim her old life.

A fight erupts at Sylvia’s flat when Peter announces he ended things with Naomi. Sylvia accuses him of using her to escape his real feelings. Peter flees, drinks heavily, and turns up at his father’s house, where Ivan is staying. The confrontation turns physical: Ivan shoves Peter, Peter slaps him and nearly kicks him before fleeing in horror. Later, Christine calms Peter over dinner. Ivan, with a split lip, calls Margaret sobbing; she invites him to her cottage, and they imagine a future despite the age gap.

In the final movement, Peter wakes hungover and contemplates suicide on a train. At his flat he finds both Naomi and Sylvia waiting; the shock makes him faint. They revive him, and over tea Sylvia suggests an unorthodox arrangement. Days later, Peter attends Ivan’s chess tournament. Ivan secures his second IM norm, and Margaret brings him to Peter. The brothers embrace, apologise, and Ivan invites Peter to Christmas in Kildare. Peter walks home, choosing to live open-endedly amid grief and love.

Main Characters

Peter Koubek: A Dublin lawyer in his thirties grappling with grief through self-medication, and emotionally torn between Sylvia and Naomi.
Ivan Koubek: Peter’s twenty-two-year-old brother, a competitive chess player who is socially awkward and begins an intense relationship with the older Margaret.
Margaret: A woman emerging from a difficult marriage who falls for Ivan, challenging social norms and her own self-perception.
Sylvia: Peter’s first love, now living with chronic pain after an accident; their complex bond defines much of Peter’s emotional turmoil.
Naomi: A college student and Peter’s younger lover, whose housing precarity and raw honesty expose power imbalances in their relationship.

Key Themes

Grief and Loss: The father’s death triggers divergent coping mechanisms in both brothers and reshapes their identities.
Complicated Love: Non-traditional entanglements—love triangles, age-gap romance, and the possibility of polyamory—challenge conventional expectations.
Sibling Estrangement: Deep resentment between Peter and Ivan underscores the fragility and eventual endurance of brotherhood.
Class and Privilege: Peter’s professional status contrasts with Naomi’s housing insecurity, highlighting disparities in power and security.
Mental Health and Vulnerability: Characters wrestle with suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and emotional exposure, revealing the fragility of the psyche.

Symbols

Chess: Represents Ivan’s need for order and control, and a metaphor for the strategic yet emotionally detached aspects of the characters’ lives.
Alexei the Dog: The whippet symbolises familial responsibility, neglect, and the unspoken bonds between the Koubek men.
Water and Rain: Immersion in cold water and scenes of rain mirror emotional overwhelm, cleansing, and exposure to raw feeling.
Pills and Alcohol: Peter’s consumption of alprazolam and alcohol serves to numb grief and illustrates the destructiveness of avoidance.

Ending Overview

The novel closes with reconciliation and unresolved possibility. Peter, after a suicide scare, accepts that he may not need to choose between Sylvia and Naomi. At Ivan’s chess tournament, the brothers finally speak: they embrace, apologise, and plan Christmas together. Peter’s walk home signals a fragile willingness to live with grief and love without tidy resolutions. For a deeper look at the finale, read the ending explained page.

Chapter Summaries

Chapter	Link
Epigraph	Read summary
Chapter 1	Read summary
Chapter 2	Read summary
Chapter 3	Read summary
Chapter 4	Read summary
Chapter 5	Read summary
Chapter 6	Read summary
Chapter 7	Read summary
Chapter 8	Read summary
Chapter 9	Read summary
Chapter 10	Read summary
Chapter 11	Read summary
Chapter 12	Read summary
Chapter 13	Read summary
Chapter 14	Read summary
Chapter 15	Read summary
Chapter 16	Read summary
Chapter 17	Read summary

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Intermezzo about?
Intermezzo follows brothers Peter and Ivan Koubek after their father’s death. Peter, a Dublin lawyer, numbs his pain with substances while balancing relationships with Sylvia and Naomi. Ivan, a chess prodigy, begins a secret romance with an older woman, Margaret. The novel explores grief, complicated love, and sibling estrangement.
Why is the book called Intermezzo?
The title suggests an interlude or a transitional passage between acts. The story unfolds in the aftermath of loss—a liminal space where characters pause, re-evaluate their lives, and tentatively move toward new forms of connection.
What is the relationship between Peter and Sylvia?
Sylvia is Peter’s first love, now living with chronic pain after an accident. Their bond is emotionally intense but physically limited. Peter can’t fully let go of her, and Sylvia struggles with guilt and jealousy, making their connection a central source of Peter’s turmoil.
Is the age gap between Ivan and Margaret criticised in the book?
Yes. Characters like Peter and the community gossip about the relationship. Peter calls it abnormal, and Margaret’s mother shames her. Yet the novel also portrays their bond as genuinely mutual and tender, challenging the judgments it presents.
Does the book have a happy ending?
The ending is cautiously hopeful. Peter and Ivan reconcile; Peter agrees to an unconventional arrangement with Sylvia and Naomi; Margaret and Ivan plan a future together. There is no neat happiness, but the characters choose to keep living with love and sorrow.
What role does chess play?
Chess is Ivan’s passion and a structuring metaphor. It represents his search for control and his tendency to process emotion through abstract systems. The epigraph explicitly links grief and chess, framing the novel’s central tension between raw feeling and intellectual detachment.
Does Peter have suicidal thoughts?
Yes. Peter repeatedly hears a voice telling him he wishes he was dead. He uses alcohol and alprazolam to cope, and at one point contemplates suicide on a train. His mental health is a major undercurrent, though he eventually finds a reason to continue.
What happens to Alexei the dog?
Alexei is the whippet left behind after the father’s death. Ivan rescues the dog from neglect at his mother’s house and brings him to Dublin. The dog becomes a symbol of responsibility and sibling connection, ultimately helping to bridge the brothers’ estrangement.