Mack Petersen, manager of the hotel, has been working at the Beach Club for twelve summers. Only this summer is different. His boss, the owner of the hotel, Bill Elliott, shows up in the spring with a new set of demands. His girlfriend, Maribel, is pressing Mack to get married and Vance, the African American bellman who has hated Mack since the day Mack stole his job twelve years ago, threatens him in a deadly scene.