Joan Foster, a wealthy man's daughter who has gained a reputation as a fast-living speedboat racer and avaitrix, decides to take a Mediterranean cruise because she feels that the enmity toward her of her stodgy stepmother is interfering with her father's marriage. After partying with friends, Joan, very intoxicated, arrives at the pier after the boat has begun to move. Her leap onto the ship irritates Second Officer Dick Charlton, whom she calls "Georgeous." To his chagrin, Dick, who despises women of Joan's type, is assigned by his captain to look after her because she is the daughter of the president of the line. Alice Mudge, a somewhat goofy, clumsy, shy and homely librarian from a small town in Wisconsin, discovers Joan lying dead drunk in her cabin, and thinking that she might actually be dead, summons Mrs. Gillespie, a matronly, no-nonsense widow from Oklahoma. Together they manage to undress Joan. The next day, the three women go to the ship's pool, where Ezra MacDuff, a taciturn older gentleman, rescues Mudge when she falls in. Although Dick warns Joan that diving from the balcony is not permitted, she does it anyway and provokes laughter, which humiliates him. In the pool, Joan swims into a former romantic interest, newlywed Chuck Wells, who requests that she keep their past a secret from his bride Millicent, who is also Joan's former friend. Mill then implores Joan not to mention her former romance with Phil Lang to Chuck. Joan tries to apologize to Dick, but he treats her with disdain. After he berates her, she joins a poker game, which ends in a brawl, and the incident leads the captain to make Dick personally responsible to see that she is not involved in any more escapades. At Algiers, Jane's apology leads to a reconciliation with Dick and a passionate kiss. Lang, who owes underworld figures $10,000, boards the ship and threatens to show Mill's love letters to Chuck unless she has her father wire $5,000 to Naples by the next day. After Mill tells Joan about her predicament, Joan goes to see Lang, who has been attracted to her for years. She takes the letters from Lang's room, not noticing that Dick sees her leave. Lang follows her to her room, and their struggle for the letters is interrupted when Mrs. Gillespie appears with her late husband's formidable-looking pistol. Joan then throws the letters through the porthole. That night, as his debtors knock on his door, Lang shoots himself. After Dick finds Joan's cigarette case in Lang's room, he refuses to listen to her explanation. During a costume party, Joan gets very drunk and dives off the balcony again, not knowing that the pool has been drained. Dick, who has since learned why Joan went to Lang's room from Mrs. Gillespie, arrives too late to stop the dive, but because the pool still had some water in it, Joan recovers. She and Dick now plan to marry, as do Mudge and Ezra.
