Kip and Amanda, sixty-ish protagonists from previous adventures, continue their humorously dysfunctional relationship as Kip is asked to be a father figure to a troubled fourteen-year-old and plans to spend a summer of male bonding under sail, while Amanda decides to reconcile her husband with his memory of his overbearing, non-nurturing, departed mother.

Of course, neither plan works out as expected, but their failures will put their marriage on the line.