The Beaches is one of Toronto's best known and most admired neighbourhoods. It has no striking works of architecture or splendid public spaces, no must-see galleries or public institutions, and no associations with historic events or great celebrities – the sort of things that create neighbourhood reputations and draw visitors. It does, however, have an attractive character, and it is this character that Richard White seeks to understand, offering insights into how it came to be and why it has endured.

With an eye to the broader historical context, The Beaches recounts the neighbourhood's initial colonial settlement, its development as a lakeside recreational community in the late nineteenth century, its emergence as a streetcar suburb after 1900, its maturation in the 1920s and 1930s, its relative decline in the 1950s and 1960s, and its revival in the 1970s and beyond. Utilizing a wide range of archival records, including council minutes, plans of subdivision, newspapers, public land records, city directories, assessment rolls, and historical photographs – as well as the present-day landscape – The Beaches reveals the various forces, public and private, local and international, that shaped this cherished urban neighbourhood.