Hook, Line, and Sinker is the second in a duology, two novels featuring the Bellinger sisters, Hannah and Piper. The sisters were born in the small fishing town of Westport, Washington. Their father, Henry Cross, was swept overboard while he and his men were out fishing for king crab and died. Their mother, Maureen, moved to Los Angeles and met Daniel Bellinger, a movie producer. The girls have grown up wealthy and well taken care of in their mansion in Bel Air.

In the first novel in the set, It Happened One Summer, Piper, who is famous for her good looks and style, gets in trouble, and Daniel sends her to Westport to do something about a bar that Henry had left the girls. Hannah goes with Piper for moral support. While there, the girls meet their grandmother, Opal Cross, learn more about their father, and decide to renovate and reopen the bar, renaming it Cross and Daughters.

Piper falls in love with boat captain Brendan Taggart. Hannah is introduced to Fox Thornton, Brendan’s relief skipper, a good-looking and footloose type with a reputation as a lady killer. The two first meet when Fox steers an angry Hannah away from defending Piper to Brendan.