Laney Sheppard doesn't want pity, and she doesn't want to be labeled. All she wants is to escape the tragedy that haunts her dreams and leaves her stumbling by day in a waking nightmare of loneliness and regret. It is this wish, along with a lifelong desire to be near the sea that spurs Laney to move from her comfortable hometown of Conrad, Iowa to the small fishing village of Garibaldi, Oregon.
While working as a waitress at The Boathouse restaurant, Laney begins to make a new life for herself in Garibaldi - but it isn't anything like she'd imagined. From exchanging witty repartee with the colorful clientele of The Boathouse, to acclimatizing to the weather and learning how to sail, nothing is as simple as it seems- including Michael Barragan.
Rude and belligerent, the solitary young fisherman repels everyone around him with his irritable demeanor. Laney, however, has no intentions of allowing anyone, especially Michael, to intimidate her. When their personalities collide, Laney and Michael discover a passion that neither had expected and a love that threatens to tear them apart. Can Laney and Michael help each other come to terms with the past; or are some people, like the sea, too tumultuous to tame?