Plot
The film is set in the summer of 1982 on Long Island. The film follows a group of locals navigating their relationships and personal growth. JJ Flynn works for his dad and falls for Debbie, while Frankie reconnects with an old flame, Suzy. The film captures the intersecting lives of these young adults as they face the end of summer and the onset of adulthood.
The camera opens on Memorial Day weekend in a working-class beach town on Long Island, a place of bungalows, boardwalks, marinas and seasonal rhythms. JJ Flynn (played by Pico Alexander) has just graduated high school and is spending his summer working at his father Jack’s beach club. Jack (Edward Burns) runs the club and expects his son to pull his weight; JJ, however, is restless. He senses the summer might mark a turning point.
At the club, JJ meets Debbie Espinoza (Lindsey Morgan), a worker there who is confident, sharp and ambitious in her own right. JJ is drawn to her, but he’s shy and uncertain—he’s not yet sure how to step into adulthood. Their budding attraction is tentative: Debbie has her own sense of self, and JJ must reconcile his expectations (and his father’s expectations) with this new possibility. Over the course of summer they spend time together—shifts at the club, beach parties, late-night talks—and JJ starts to open up to the idea that life could be more than what he’s been doing.
Meanwhile, Frankie (Anthony Ramos) returns to his hometown after some time away (“got out,” as the film puts it) and reconnects with Suzy Denner (Caitlin Stasey), his high-school flame. The re‐connection isn’t simply a nostalgia trip: Frankie realises he’s been out and about, but still carries an unresolved longing for Suzy and for the life he left behind. Suzy, meanwhile, is back for the summer and is curious about whether they can pick up where they left off, or whether both have changed too much. Through their meetings and conversations, the film explores how the passage of time both connects and divides people.
There are intersecting sub-stories: JJ’s cousin Terry (Amadeus Serafini), a wannabe musician-songwriter staying with the family, tries to convince Winky (Rita Volk) — the teenage daughter of Claudia (Susan Misner) who runs the nearby marina — to collaborate and to believe in her own potential. Winky is in a slump (her rich boyfriend has drifted away) and Terry sees in her a kind of raw talent. Their dynamic becomes one of mentorship, flirtation and self-discovery. Another thread: Mello (Jon Rudnitsky), a boisterous, fun-loving local, married to Lydia (Zoe Levin), becomes a confidant, narrator-type figure: he loiters around the boardwalk, invites people into his orbit, overhears things, and his energetic personality provides some of the film’s wide-angle view of the community at play.
As summer progresses, the film dwells on the rhythms of small-town life: early-morning bike rides, fireworks on the beach, sand between toes, the obligatory boardwalk hang-out, and casual conversations that carry more weight than they appear to. The soundtrack—a mix of 1980s pop (“Duran Duran”, “The Cure”, “The Go-Go’s”, etc.)—underscores the nostalgic mood but is not overly kitschy. Burns captures the feeling of that one defining summer when things are changing.
For JJ, the central arc becomes this: he must decide whether to accept the path laid out by his father (working at the club, staying local) or use this summer as a launch pad for something bigger. When Debbie invites him into her world, he realizes he’ll have to risk changing his life. The tension resides not in big dramatic plot-twists, but in everyday choices: staying with the familiar or daring to go beyond. As relationships deepen, cracks appear. The carefree sheen of summer wears thin when the real world creeps in: Debbie has aspirations, Terry reveals his self-involvement, Winky confronts her stagnation, Suzy wrestles with Frankie’s expectations, and Mello navigates the married-with-friends life in a youth-shaped town.
By Labour Day weekend, the feeling of “something ending” kicks in. The parties get smaller, the jobs wind down, the tourists leave, and the beach town begins its slow return to off-season normalcy. The characters must confront the fact that “summer” is not forever: they’ll all have to move on. For Suzy and Frankie, the relationship seems to reach an inflection: they either reconcile more honestly or accept that they’ve grown apart. For JJ and Debbie, the question remains whether what they have can extend beyond the sand and sun. For Winky, Terry and the others, it’s whether they will take the next step (musician, student, adult) or stay in the place they know. The film ends not with dramatic resolution, but with a sense of transition: goodbyes on the sand, vague plans for the future, and the recognition that life doesn’t pause at the end of summer.
While the film has its moments of light comedy, beach-party energy and flirtation, its stronger focus is the emotional weight of change. The ensemble structure means there are no singular climactic confrontations; instead we watch a mosaic of youth, restlessness, nostalgia, and the cusp of adulthood.
In the closing scenes, the camera pulls back. The summer jobs end, Jack Flynn’s club closes up for the season, the beach chairs are folded, and the characters scatter—some staying in town, some heading to new cities, some simply pausing to ask: what’s next? The film ends with a wistful mixture of regret and hope, illustrating that growing up is less about dramatic leaps and more about the small decisions that sum up.
