Nightclub singer Ross Carpenter, who also skippers a charter fishing boat for Papa Stavros, dreams of someday purchasing the latter's sailboat, which Ross and his late father built.  Stavros offers the prize craft for sale when he is forced to move to Arizona because of his wife's illness, and Ross is determined to earn enough money to buy it, in spite of strong objections from his girl friend, Robin Gantner, who also sings at the club.

After a lovers' quarrel Ross meets and becomes attracted to wealthy Laurel Dodge.  Meanwhile, the opportunistic Wesley Johnson has bought the boat and later hires Ross to skipper a fishing vessel, even though the two men's personalities conflict.  Laurel, who has kept her wealth a secret, learns that Ross hopes to buy the sailboat from Johnson; she purchases it herself and offers it to Ross, but he is angered by the gesture and disappears.

Laurel learns Ross has gone to an island to visit some Chinese friends and hires Johnson to take her there.  En route, Johnson makes advances towards her and Ross, warned by a friend who has witnessed the scene, rushes to her rescue.  The two are happily reunited, and the boat is sold back to Johnson on the condition that Ross will be able to purchase it when he can earn the money.