Eva Trina Sorenson (Eve) is 40 when she moves from her Pacific Northwest home to Windward O`ahu to be with and care for Meg, her beloved aunt. Sorenson is Eve’s family name. She has a son who is 15, living back on the mainland with his dad, and an adopted daughter who is 22, working and living in Seattle. Eve is on leave from her middle school teaching job. Her aunt, outspoken and impatient, has just moved to an independent living high rise. She expects Eve to care for her as her health declines, and to take on upkeep and repair of her Kailua Beach home and a rental bungalow.

Meg suggests Eve needs to improve her physical appearance by getting a tan (possible in Hawai`i in January) and dye her hair a blonde shade. Meg’s friend Jolie disagrees, saying that would destroy the red highlights in Eve’s hair, which. Meg calls Soren-boring, explaining that’s the family name meaning . . . Soren is reddish brown. Meg also derides Eve’s teaching career, especially curriculum units she has developed on the Native Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest. She calls Eve “Teacherish,” and suggested was rotting in the damp back there at Sorenson Cove on Puget Sound. Still, it’s clear that Meg loves Eve and believes that being in the islands will help heal Eve’s sorrows. She also predicts that Eve will meet three potential new lovers, as Meg believes lovers make life worth living.

Eve has visited Meg in Kailua every year for the last 30 years, and loves greeting the sun as it seemingly rises out of the ocean every morning and sends pink clouds over the turquoise water every evening. She settles into a routine where she’s on the beach every morning and most evenings. As for lovers, Eve is not interested, though several young men appear in her life and become interesting characters in the story.