Esme meets Steve Ford, an independent filmmaker, during a shoot on a beach in California. Her long lost sister, Darcy, is in one of his films. Steve likes Esme, but she's only seventeen. This doesn't prevent Esme from convincing Steve, at age 22, that he isn't all that ancient. And guess what? She has a birthday coming up. Before things go too far, he runs away and goes to law school, but can't forget her.