The Texas Open Beaches Act states that the public beach extends from the water up to the line of vegetation. Once a privately-owned property is submerged, it transfers into state ownership. Because of severe erosion and the shifting nature of vegetation, the Village of Surfside has lost several rows of houses and streets and, currently, over thirty houses are located on the public beach obstructing public access in violation of the Texas Open Beaches Act. The extreme erosion in this small village on the Texas Gulf Coast puts homeowners, property owners, legislators, and beachgoers in difficult positions and many are at odds with one another. The documentary film is structured around rental property owner Russell Clinton, environmentalists Ellis Pickett and Jeff Hooton, and former State Senator A.R. "Babe" Schwartz.

Martin Scorsese's films, GOODFELLAS and CASINO, and Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION are examined to determine if the crime film of the 1990s has become increasingly more in the style of film noir. The differences and similarities between the two crime films each director has either written or co-written in the 1990s are delineated to demonstrate this trend. Other crime films of the latter 1990s (SEVEN, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and MULHOLLAND FALLS) are also examined to aid in defining the latest incarnation of the crime film as "Noir Modernist," a term that is demonstrated to be a more accurate description for the current crime films than B. Ruby Rich's, "Neo-Noir of the 1990s."