Every summer three-fourths of the mothers and children from Maple Grove, New Jersey, flock to summer cottages by the seashore at Braden's Port. The fathers join them on the weekends. It has been a tradition for Michael's and Buddy's families for as long as the boys can remember. The pattern of Saturday night sundaes and afternoons at the beach has remained the same until the summer before Michael's senior year. His discontentment with his life and the direction it is heading forces him to make a stand and assert his own independence.

After eighteen interviews for other jobs, Michael finds work as a busboy at the Jolly Mackerel restaurant. The clientele are winter people, the workers are winter people, and privileged summer-boy Michael gets a taste of what it is like to be on the outside of wealth, looking in.