Set amid the sprawling suburbs and the wild canyons of Southern California, Hank & Chloe is the story of a pair of seemingly mismatched lovers: he, a solitary scholar from a staid family; she, a former foster child eking out a marginal existence.

Chloe Morgan, full-time waitress and part-time horse trainer, is called to help a mare through a troubled labor. Despite Chloe's efforts and the ministrations of the vet she calls, the mare dies. The horse's owner takes Chloe to his community college office, where she borrows a shirt from another professor, Henry "Hank" Oliver. This encounter is the beginning of the unlikely relationship between rough, independent Chloe and reserved, settled Hank.

When Hank visits Chloe's home, a shack in a squatter's community, she takes him into her arms--and, more reluctantly, into her life. Shortly after Hank and Chloe begin their relationship, Chloe's home is raided. She is injured and arrested, and her beloved dog Hannah runs off. Hank hires a lawyer and brings Chloe to live with him while she recovers. As the novel chronicles Hank and Chloe's relationship, it explores love in its myriad forms, including the pair's unresolved relationships from the past and a brooding passion for the besieged landscape.