Working her way as a hairdresser on board a liner traveling through the Panama Canal Zone, Maggie King brushes off a brash young soldier, “Skid” Johnson, on his last day in the Army. However, he is persistent, and the next day she and her friend Ella reluctantly go on a double date with him and his piano player friend Harry in Balboa. In a nightclub, she expresses her distaste of trumpet music, whereupon he impresses her with his amazing prowess with the instrument. When a man, speaking only Spanish, tries to pick her up at the bar, he and Skid end up brawling, which lands Skid and Maggie in jail. As a result, Maggie misses her ship back to the States.