It's dawn in Pacific Beach California as Boone Daniels, a laid-back private investigator in board shorts and with sleuthing skills to burn, straddles his long board, out on the line. With him are his Dawn Patrol buddies - High Tide, a seriously big Samoan, Dave the Life Guard - aka Dave the Love God - and Johnny Banzai, a San Diego homicide detective when he's not in the water. Then there's Sunny - tall, blond, a real California girl. She's also the best surfer of the lot, and has, well, history with Boone. A huge pacific storm is coming, bringing with it once-in-a-lifetime waves - Sunny's last chance to be snapped riding one big wave and make pro. So when Boone takes a case involving one dead and one missing stripper with the help - or hindrance, Boone thinks - of uptight lawyer Petra Hall, he's determined to wrap it up in time for the epic surf. But all sorts of trouble follows with Hawaiian gangs and trafficked Mexican girls, as the case turns dark and personal, raising ghosts from Boone's troubled past and dragging in Sunny and the rest of the Dawn Patrol. The currents turn treacherous on land and at sea as the big swell makes landfall and Boone has to fight just to keep his head above water...