Georgia Bockoven aims straight for the heart in a tale as timeless as waves beating against the shore. The beach house is a peaceful summer heaven， a place to escape mundane troubles. Here， four families find their feelings intensified and their lives transformed. With equal measures of heartbreak and happiness， this unforgettable story tells of the beauty of life and the power of love， and speaks to every woman who has ever clung to a child or loved a man. When thirty-year-old Julia， mourning the death of her husband， decides to sell the Santa Cruz beach house they owned together， she changes the lives of all the families who rent it year after year. Teenaged Chris discovers the bittersweet joy of first love. Maggie and Joe， married sixty-five years， courageously face a separation that even their devotion cannot prevent. The married woman Peter yearns for suddenly comes within his reach. And Julia ultimately finds the strength to rebuild her life--something she once thought impossible.