When romance-novel obsessed ghost writer Katie Caruso waits in a New York City cafe to meet her next writing partner, the last person in the world she expects to see is Tyler McNally.
Ivy League-educated, aspiring literary fiction novelist Tyler McNally. Handsome, sleeve-tattooed, nine-years-sober Tyler McNally. And, unforgettably, her very own childhood sweetheart, Tyler McNally. The pair haven't seen each other since the death of Katie's older brother. Tyler was her brother's best friend and Katie - naturally - was the girl next door.
But despite both their bitter complaints at the reunion, the agent who hired them won't let them off the job. Soon, they're forced to work in closer and closer proximity. After a gas leak takes out Katie's apartment they're even whisked to the Hamptons to write together on a sunny veranda, wearing barely-there swimwear. As the summer unfolds and the romance novel they're writing starts to take shape, they realize all the tropes they're writing are mysteriously coming to life in their own second-chance love story.
But can life ever really imitate art? Are these two just getting swept away by the tropes? Or can they finally work through the pain that tore them apart - and fight for their very own happy ending?