Zara Rhodes is freshly graduated from her East Coast Ivy League college and has returned home to California, just for one summer. She's going to help out at her mother's struggling record store, and then split as soon as she finds her true calling. Having just turned 21, she should be sowing her wild oats. But she has no interest in making the same choices her mother did at that age. Which means, steering clear of men.

Kai Stormcloud is a a hippie drifter with a checkered past. He's starting over with only the guitar in his hands and his wits. Maybe he'll busk his way up the California coast until he's got enough money to send home to his aunt who raised him. Or, maybe follow his favorite jam band across the country for awhile. He doesn't know or care what happens after that. But when he spots a spunky little record store clerk on his first day in Sea Grove, he changes his tune. She makes it clear she doesn't trust his type, but Kai will do anything to win her over. Even get a real job.