Carmie Hoffman is ready for everything to change. She wants to lose 20 pounds and be a beautiful girl. She wants someone to think shes special. She wants to move out of the Valley and stop worrying about her clinically depressed mother, whos tired and sad almost all of the time. Then, out of nowhere, she sees her openingwhen her best friend convinces her mother to drive them to Malibu Beach, Carmies tired, sad, and oh-so-old mom grabs a surfboard and impresses even the locals! Thats when Carmie learns that her mom had a secret life before Carmiea life where she was a Malibu surfer. Carmie knows that she was meant to learn this. That she and her mom were meant to move to Malibu and form a surfing dynasty with some of the surfing legends her mom used to hang out with. In her movie notebook, Carmie writes herself a starring role as a glamorous, gorgeous surf star. But not everything is as easy as it is in the movies, and Carmie learns that her mom is a much more complicated and wonderful person than she ever knew.From the Hardcover edition.