The year is 1963. Nelson, a sensitive  fourteen-year old lives with his 10-year old sister, Lucille and their widower father, Weston, in an idilic beach oil company compound in Venezuela. A microcosmos of America in a foreign land. His world is limited to the local company school and his father, a former Marine Pilot  Korea veteran. Weston is a strict disciplinarian who has been trying his best to raise his children on his own since their mother, Alma, died in a diving accident, five years earlier. His only help in this regard is Marcelina, their Southern black maid who has been with the family since the kids were born in the US. Weston flies the Mobil Oil company's planes and life has little surprises. This is until Renata, a beautiful Italian Doctor's Assistant arrives in Paradise Beach to work at the local hospital and changes their life forever.