Heir to a business empire worth millions, handsome and wealthy Alec Goodchilde has everything a man could want except the freedom to be himself. Once a year, he motors down to an exclusive yacht club on the Cornish coast and allows himself to take the summer off from his demanding father, his stifling mother, his unwanted fiancée and a life he thinks of as a trap.
Once a year, poverty stricken surfer Darren Stokes allows himself to take the summer off from his life of grinding overwork and appalling needy relatives, financing his holiday by picking up the first rich man to show an interest.When Alec's car breaks down, leaving him stranded on the beach where Darren is surfing, he is struck as if by lightning by the thought that Darren is the summer made flesh—freedom, wrapped up in one lithe package, dripping wet from the sea.
But Alec is so deeply in the closet that he hasn't even admitted to himself that he's gay. And Darren is recovering from last year's disastrous fling with a rich guy who turned out to be more than he could handle. Even if love is possible in the holidays, can it survive when the boys of summer come home?