Julie, a lonely fourteen year old girl, moves to Manzanita, an Oregon seaside town, from Los Angeles after her writer father, Robert, loses his job. Her family, including mother Kathryn and older sister Susan, has trouble adjusting to life in a small town. Julie parents struggle with her father's unemployment and her sister, Susan, finds solace in a summer fling with Tom, a not-to-bright local logger. The story opens with a 16th century Spanish sailors landing their launch on the beach of Manzanita. They carry a treasure chest up Neahkahnie Mountain, leading a manacled black slave. The treasure is buried and the slave killed and laid on top of the ground to "guard" the treasure and frighten the Indians away. Back in present day, Julie has a dramatic encounter with a large Roosevelt Elk on the beach. Its hooves uncover an old Spanish gold coin in the sand.