It's 1972, and eighteen-year-old tomboy Maeve O'Connor must win a photography contest to escape her suffocating, conservative family and attend her dream school in Manhattan. But where will she find arresting subjects? Why, a washed up old seaside resort called Asbury Park, New Jersey -- a place where sideshow entertainers, strippers, carnies, artists, and alternative lifestyles coexist on the boardwalk in plain sight. To her great surprise, Maeve manages to talk her parents into letting her go for the summer. Immediately upon reaching Asbury Park, she meets and falls in love Georgie, a young man with superstar talent, held back by the fact that he is androgynous. She befriends other undiscovered artists as well, including a man who breaks through with a hit album. But what price will she pay for embracing the bohemian lifestyle where she feels she belongs?