The plot has a sailor on shore leave falling for a nice girl, with a series of misunderstandings leading each to doubt the other's loyalty.

A cast of colorful characters provides comic relief and the film concludes with a massive brawl between sailors and bouncers at a dance marathon.

The boardinghouse proprietor, banana seller, and a policeman all arrive on the scene, as does Busby's wife Mona, and amid arguing, everyone is thrown into the pool in their street clothes.

Jimmy promises to return again that evening, but his ship sails for San Francisco and he is unable to send word.

Sally feels abandoned and fends off the unwanted advances of Bartolo, who offers to arrange for her to win the $1,000 first prize at the dance marathon that he is sponsoring.

Jimmy finds out that Brown had really been picking up his son from Sally's room and rushes to see her at the dance marathon, but is ejected by Bartolo's bouncers.

The fleet of sailors watching the dance marathon from a balcony jump onto the floor and a huge brawl breaks out between them and the bouncers while Jimmy and Sally escape.

[2] According to Walsh biographer Moss, the film's theme is expressed in a lyric in an onscreen musical number: "Love makes the world go 'round".

[2][7] A draft script indicates that a more fully-developed male gay character named Violetta was originally planned for this sequence, being either a pool employee or the manager's brother-in-law.

[1] Smith notes Walsh's use of "depth staging" in the swimming-pool, Hawaiian restaurant, and dance marathon scenes, which involved "utilizing multiple focal points in the foreground, middle-ground and background".

He did not find the story particularly original, but said that the constant infusion of "wisecracks and comic incidents" smoothed over dramatic scenes and lapses in continuity.

He made special note of the swimming pool sequence—"No matter how many times fully clad persons are beheld falling into water, it is an idea that always tickles the risibleness of an audience"—and the climactic fight at the dance marathon—"Bottles fly through the air and all movable furniture is smashed.

[13] An exhibitor's report in the Motion Picture Herald also noted the positive audience response to a screening, adding, "A little off color in spots, but seemed to go by unnoticed".

But while the reviewer considered the film the epitome of bad taste, she was surprised that the theater audience loved it, noting that they laughed at every comedic line and drunken-sailor gag.

[16] The Dayton Daily News wrote that Dunn and Eilers "work together like real young people and have no actorish manners.