The novel centers around the life of Benjamin Bentley, a 17-year-old from Houston, Texas, and his tumultuous relationship with two love interests over the span of several years.

The novel is written from a third person limited point of view, told through the eyes of the book's main character, Benjamin Bentley.

The first part of the book, set in the city of Houston in 1996, focuses on the relationship Ben eventually develops with Tim Wyman, another teenager who he attends high school with.

He meets flight attendant Jace Holden while flying back home for the holidays, and the two eventually fall in love and decide to move in together.

The two meet each other once again, and after realizing that Tim has turned his life around and overcome all his previous hang-ups, Ben agrees to resume the relationship they began over a decade earlier when they were teenagers.

The revised version, marketed as being more school friendly, largely removed the book's descriptions of sexual acts between the main characters.

On the film's website, author Jay Bell explained, "I really want to get Something Like Summer into schools and into the hands of young people, but the explicit content has always made that difficult".