Windfall, a love story redolent with music making and the sound of the sea. "I remembered what you used to say about jazz; like how, without a strict set of rules, it can't possibly work. Fact is, it's much the same with sailing; stick to the rules and it's probably the most beautiful thing you can do in life. Ignore them and at best you'll get a frightening and uncomfortable time. At worst... you'll drown." Jacob Emerson Davenport, Sailor Jake, a young American crewman on a racing yacht, and Charley, a Canadian high school saxophonist, meet by chance at the 1964 Newport Jazz Festival. They are immediately attracted but, right from the start, circumstances seem determined to drive them apart. Jake succumbs to a drug and alcohol habit which nearly destroys him and Charley has her own fair share of problems but somehow gets through them long enough to take her all-girl jazz band to play the New York club scene. Hospitalized after an accident on his mentor's yacht, Jake eventually recuperates and joins the US Navy. When he is sent to Vietnam and Charley's teaching job takes her to London, it seems the relationship is finally doomed. Both Jake and Charlie try to get on with their separate lives - Charley marries an American jazz drummer, Frank Mitchell, and has a daughter. And when Jake discovers this, he realizes that this time, he has to let her go. But something's stopping him. By a chance conversation, he learns what's really going in Charley's marriage and does his utmost to get her back. Little do they know that this is going to be the biggest and most difficult challenge of their lives. Will this ill-fated pair ever rekindle their relationship or is destiny determined to keep them apart?