Can a person's life change in just one day? How about seven? Donald Pottier and Jason Greene are barely more than boys when they meet on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. A day of crabbing soon turns them from strangers to friends, then to something more, but the boys’ time is limited: at the end of the summer, Jay will leave Don and the island behind. But Fate has more in store for Don and Jay than a summer of might-have-beens. Through 11 years of friendship, pain, love, loss, sickness and misfortune, seven days stand out. Seven days define and shape the people they are and the relationship they share. Seven days of reunions and separations, accidents and serendipity, rejection and acceptance, disappointment and hope lay the foundation no romance can survive without: unconditional love.