Set in a seaside town, Claudia, a burnt-out waitress who's about to turn 30, is torn between her dreams and the lure of a middle-class life, especially when her dead-end life is altered by the reappearance of her ex-boyfriend, Charlie, who left abrubtly several years earlier. He takes a job at a garage and makes a point of seeking out Claudia--first at work, then at home. Claudia is flattered by his attention. Michael, Charlie's boyhood buddy, is wary. But, with Charlie apparently home to stay, Claudia is vulnerable to memories of their shared past together, and to the dreams that she still harbors.