Monterey Bay by Lindsay Hatton

Margot has traveled around the world with her eccentric father and now they have landed in Monterey Bay California where her father is investing in a cannery. It is the 1940's and the heyday of Cannery Row and this is where she meets Ed Ricketts, a biologist who will capture her heart and his band of supporters none more than the outspoken and disapproving John Steinbeck. Margot has an affair with Ricketts that creates a wedge between Margot and her dad but frees the rebel spirit in Margot. Margot works for Ricketts as a specimen artist and soon begins to love the bay and its inhabitants as much as he does and will work to see something lasting built in the form of the aquarium. As sure as the tides changing she will fight to win the love and respect of these two men all the while trying to matter in the rough and tumble world of Cannery Row.