Dean Taylor is excited to tackle the final assignment before officially making partner at his firm, that is until he learns he must return to his hometown to close the deal. Driving past road signs and ball fields, he is overwhelmed by images from the past he had run away from a decade ago and of which he had no desire to return.

Dean's plans to get in, grab a signature, and get out quickly are abruptly dashed as the CEO of Cape Fear Commercial demands that Dean spends a week getting to know each of the company's facilities. Compounding Dean's challenge, Cape Fear's Public Relations Director assigned to take him on the tour is a college ex-girlfriend, a relationship that he acknowledges he did not end in particularly gallant fashion. At every turn during his stay, Dean runs into people from his past. Unresolved relationships weighing on him, he launches into an ill-advised apology tour.

As Dean confronts his past, he finds himself unwittingly smitten with Shelby James, a wary military widow struggling to move past the heartbreak of losing her husband. Life's turns continue to pit the two together as they begin to build a fragile, reluctant relationship unlocking hearts and healing wounds of the past, cultivating a warm, coastal Carolina romance.