Julia Blumer is called home to Gull’s Harbor, California, a hilly seaside community just north of San Diego, by her two sisters, Sophie and Emily, when it is clear that their domineering mother Babs Blumer is critically ill. Julia catches the first plane out of New York City, hoping to mend the rift between her and Babs that has existed since Julia left home after the fight to end all fights ten years ago. Much to her chagrin, Babs is not happy to see her and it's not the reunion she hoped for.

Julia moves back into her old bedroom, the one that overlooks the neighbor’s house. While unpacking her few possessions and setting up a place to work at her the desk, she is shocked to see her old boyfriend, literally the boy next door, Liam Murphy in his old bedroom. She hides, hitting the floor and creeping back up to the windowsill to watch him as he works out in his room. The years have been good to Liam, very good, and Julia is alarmed by the attraction she still feels for the buff surfer boy, whose heart she smashed to bits when she ran away a decade ago.

While Babs's condition deteriorates, family secrets are revealed and the past comes roaring back into the present. As the clock winds down on her time in Gull's Harbor, Julia frantically tries to help her sisters, make peace with her mother, and win back the first love she has never gotten over.