Life for Noah Braddock, living in sun-drenched San Diego, is good. Just shy of thirty, his job as a P.I. gives him plenty of time to surf. He makes enough money to keep his beachfront apartment and a six-pack of beer in the fridge. Suddenly his life gets a lot more complicated when Marilyn Crier, the mother of his former high school girlfriend Kate, calls him out of the blue and tells him that Kate is missing - and she wants Noah to find her.