Gruber's scheme to salt fake pearls in the lagoon backfires when Binghamton mistakes them for the real thing and evicts the 73 crew out of their camp.

Parker gets in hot water when the crew sends a chapter of his war novel to Parker's girlfriend Mary to impress her... and everyone thinks the story is real.

To assure that Binghamton get transferred to ComFleet, the crew have to recover a barrage balloon that they traded to Urula.