Stephanie Richards is a single parent juggling her life to bring up her fouryear-old daughter, hold down a full-time job as head waitress at the family restaurant -- and finalise her divorce from her violent, unscrupulous husband. Paul Hamilton is a burnt-out derivatives broker recuperating from a bout of pneumonia and the strain of maintaining the expensive lifestyle his family seems to demand.

They meet on an empty winter beach in out-of-season Montauk, and the instant attraction they experience is strengthened by the discovery that they have much in common. Both wish their lives had taken other directions, other turnings, aware that they are missing something -- or someone -- special. Their love seems destined to endure, but what will happen when the real world returns to intrude on their few snatched days of paradise ...?