Sixteen-year-old Charlie McIntyre wants nothing more than to leave the school year behind him and be back at his family's beach house in Ocean City, New Jersey. In January, Charlie returns home from school to find that his father has deserted the family. Devastated, Charlie buries his anger and resentment behind a wall. Desperate for some sense of normal, Charlie longs for the carefree days spent at the beach, hanging out with his circle of friends, particularly his best friend Jackson.

However, Charlie soon discovers that the normalcy he needed being back in Ocean City is fleeting. Slowly, his relationships with his friends begin to shift, and Charlie finds himself adrift in a sea of change in which he struggles to remain afloat.

Holding Back the Tide is a novel about the ever-changing landscape teenagers face as they plod though friendships, family dynamics, puberty, and their evaporating childhood.