Alex's and Christian's meeting is the classic love story of boy meets girl, boy falls madly in love with girl, and girl avoids boy like the plague. Alex sees the handsome, popular, and arrogant Christian as nothing more than a distraction on her way to college until she gives herself permission to risk losing her heart. Alex soon learns Christian isn't what he seems to be, and the cultural divide between them is much deeper than she ever could have imagined. Instead of being from a foreign country, he is from a foreign and hidden world. With Christian's help, Alex discovers there is more beneath the waves than what she has learned in science class.