While in port at Wash. D.C. O'Toole keeps receiving giftsfrom a secret admirer. When a dress comes the ribbing from the crew motivates him to track down where they should have gone. He finds another Ensign O'Toole assigned to the installation who is female.

The crew of the Appleby is ordered to "shape up" for the arrival of a new officer - Ensign Bender, a book-sailor from Annapolis. O'Toole thinks that Bender needs a "Navy style" initiation, so he sets out to convince the young ensign that he has contracted a strange nautical disease.

Gabby Di Julio says he can't re-enlist - he promised his folks that he'd take over their restaurant and let them retire. But O'Toole soon learns that none of the Di Julios really want it that way - Gabby doesn't want to leave the navy, and his folks don't want to leave the restaurant.