Zoe Randall's life is going well. She is fortunate enough to own a cottage on the beach, and she has a pretty good job working for an engineering firm. Until one day she no longer has that pretty good job. Zoe picks up a couple of part time jobs in the small beach town where she lives, hoping she will be able to make ends meet. Except she figures out pretty quickly ends aren't going to meet. Zoe Randall's life becomes stressful.

And then Finn Walters moves in to the house across the street from Zoe's. Finn Walters, who will be sharing Zoe's beach. Finn Walters, who tailgates Zoe and who drives too fast, and who is unfriendly and critical and so unpleasant that Zoe's cat growls at him. Zoe wonders if things could get any worse. When she finds a job that actually pays enough to keep her afloat and she thinks her life has taken a turn for the so-much-better, Zoe wonders why she ever worried. Then she meets her new boss, Finn Walters, and she knows her troubles have just begun.