Blacky has been an ocean-rescue lifeguard on the Atlantic Ocean at Jones Beach State Park for 15 years, and his job means everything to him. The summer of 1971 changes Blacky's life when a new love awakens his hardened heart and a lover from his past comes crashing back into his life. All this, while New York State and the Jones Beach lifeguards are engaged in a deadly standoff during a lifeguard strike.

Jones Beach State Park, located on the south shore of New York's Long Island, is the largest, oceanfront public bathing facility in the history of the world. The park, founded in 1929, attracts more than 15 million visitors every summer. The Jones Beach Lifeguard Corps. consists of approximately 350 elite ocean-rescue lifeguards, men and women who watch over and protect thousands of swimmers in the rough ocean. The lifeguards make 500 rescues on any given weekend and thousands of rescues over the course of the summer season. In 1971, The Jones Beach lifeguards went on an eight-week strike in a bitter dispute with New York State involving workforce size, pay raises, continued employment for older lifeguards, and multiple safety issues. The result of the strike had deadly consequences.