Gibson Gibbons, twenty-four, college grad, war veteran, has moved to Carlsbad, California, a beach town where his family had vacationed ten years earlier. He gets a job in a convenience store close to the beach. He becomes infatuated with a woman surfer, Donna, who works a half block away at an adult care facility for the intellectually and physically challenged, Pacific View Guest Home. Gib talks his way into a second job there in exchange for room and board in one of the old bungalows at the back of the property. The surfer turns out to be a doctor and proves as elusive as the White Rabbit but Gib quickly gets emotionally and physically sucked into life at Pacific View and, when the proprietress/owner suddenly falls gravely ill, he finds himself in charge. The guest home, a highly coveted oceanfront property, quickly becomes prey to land developers with powerful influence and aggressive tactics. As the enemies reveal themselves, so do various allies who emerge from some very unlikely places to join the battle.