Life started out hard for Carly Barnowski, it was about to get harder than she ever thought, in more ways than one. After raising her three children through night terrors, bi polar and teen pregnancy, her hardly ever present husband leaves her for a younger woman.
Relocating to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, meeting her new best friend Toni Markell, the two of them are thrown back into the dating scene. While Carly's goal is to grasp temporary satisfaction from the tourists, Toni uses the internet to try to find true love again.
From phone calls with family members and conversations with her friend Toni, Carly is reminded of the past and how it has transpired her to the person she has now become.
After meeting Sean McPherson, a rich businessman sent to Hilton Head on assignment, Carly's life gets a momentary lift which includes a steamy date at his hotel. When things don't quite work out, an understatement, Carly is back on her own livng a solitary life once again. As she tries to deal with her menopausal depression, she reluctantly continues to expose herself to socialization.
While hanging out with her well mannered dog, Buddy, Carly has a few encounters with a dark haired stranger. Finally formally meeting Adam Coppell, a construction worker sent to Hilton Head to do a project, Carly is swept off her feet and out of her mind. Starting out as a friendship with a slightly younger man, turns into a fast paced love affair. From romance on the beach, a less than ideal first time, to a blazing sexual encounter, Carly does the one thing she said she would never do again....she falls in love.
When their relationship goes from sizzling to fizzling, Toni tries to get her friend Carly to become part of the living again by persuading her into some hilarious bucket list adventures.
Many months later, much better but still in love, Carly agrees to succomb to Toni's suggestions, starting the process of going against everything she use to believe in.
