Naval Academy football star Jimmy Butler has little regard for the discipline of Annapolis or that of the Marines, his father Colonel Stephen Butler's branch of the service, the Marines. Though he doesn't want to hurt his father, Jimmy decides to become a professional football player after graduation. His father's aide, Hy Doland, tricks Jimmy into reporting for duty in San Diego, however, angering Jimmy and his manager, Curly Maxwell. After a week of basic training, Jimmy plans to resign, but Hy tricks him and Curly into sailing to Manila, where Colonel Butler is stationed. Sailing toward Manila, Jimmy meets Valerie Taylor, who is returning to her plantation, accompanied by Otto Wagner. Though Wagner is offering Valerie and her brother Dick a large price for their plantation, Valerie is suspicious of his motives. As the voyage progresses, Valerie and Jimmy fall in love, but Valerie does not approve of Jimmy's plans for professional football. Jimmy wants to tell his father about his plans to resign from the Marines, but in order to do so, he has to go to an island on which his father is trying to stop gun running to the Far East. Though disappointed, the colonel agrees to the resignation and Jimmy awaits his release. Just after an exhuasted Curly arrives at the post, some gunrunners break through the lines, and Jimmy follows and overtakes them, then uses football tactics to find their hideout. He is surprised when they follow the gunrunners to Valerie's plantation. Valerie soon realizes that Wagner and Dick are working together, and to save her brother, she helps Wagner get away by appealing to Jimmy to help Dick. Wagner double crosses her, though, and Jimmy thinks that she was in with them all along. Returning to the Marine encampment, Jimmy is put under house arrest by his father because he deserted his post. Meanwhile, Hy is held prisoner by Wagner, and Valerie escapes from Wagner's boat and tells Jimmy where the gunrunners really are. Just after Jimmy arrives at the rendezvous site, Colonel Butler and his men follow and a gun battle erupts. Jimmy and Hy manage to disarm and kill Wagner and blow up the arms shipments, after which both Jimmy and Curly decide to stay with the Marines, and Valerie becomes Jimmy's "new" manager.
