After acting in his cousin's film school project, Kyle is offered the starring role in the science-fiction TV series Bridger. Its overnight success forces him into the reluctant role of heartthrob. Raine is a high school sophomore when her TV writer mentor convinces her to write a script for Bridger. When she's cast as her own female lead, Jess, she meets Kyle. Loving Bridger is easy, but immature Kyle breaks her heart. When the show ends, Kyle gladly leaves Hollywood to return to his family's wilderness outfitting station in Colorado. Raine goes on to earn her veterinary degree.

Years later, they meet again. Wearing a beard and having dropped his stage name, Kyle manages to convince Raine he isn't the jerk who shattered her last time. But their growing friendship is threatened when fandom pressure convinces the network to revive Bridger, with Raine and Kyle reprising their roles. The revelation of his minor deception pushes their relationship backwards again. As Kyle struggles to regain Raine's trust, and maybe win her love, she struggles to see him for who he is--not as Bridger or the jerk he used to be. Then a new problem emerges. Someone doesn't want the series to return to TV. They want it badly enough to threaten Raine, Kyle, and the whole production.