Boone Daniels, the most laid-back of private investigators, gathers with his surfing buds early in the morning on Pacific Beach, California. No change there then. There's no surf to speak of, but the Dawn Patrol are out in force anyway... it's what they do. Having no work at the moment, and no real reason to go to the office, Boone sticks around for the second shift on the daily surfing clock - the Gentlemen's Hour, frequented by the older veteranos and successful entrepreneurs - and ends up taking on an awkward matrimonial case.

That, however, soon becomes the least of his worries. A territorial dispute ends horribly and an icon of the San Diego surf scene is murdered. The awful truth that violence is seeping into the surf community can no longer be ignored.

Lawyer, Petra Hall, who has more than a professional interest in Boone, asks him to help the defence on that particular case. Boone knows he'll be courting outrage from the community...and from the rest of the Dawn Patrol, but he is equally certain that the man who died would want the murderer to get a fair hearing.

Disappointed and feeling betrayed, his closest friends give him the cold-shoulder but, undeterred, he digs deeper into the murkier side of surfing culture, determined to get to the truth. As events unfold Boone sees his two cases overlap in unexpected ways and finds himself struggling to stay ahead of the game as the situation gets heavier and heavier...and more deadly.