A millionaire tries to prove that his pet chimp is as smart as the local teens.

Frankie, Dee Dee, and their surfing friends arrive at Bikini Beach for a vacation and meet The Potato Bug, a British recording star also vacationing there. Newspaper publisher Huntington Honeywagon, who is trying to obtain the beach for a senior citizens' retirement community, menaces the youngsters' beach fun, claiming that they have sunk to animal level. (Honeywagon uses his pet chimpanzee, Clyde, to demonstrate his point.) The youngsters have allies in Vivien Clements, a teacher, and Big Drag, operator of a teenagers' hangout. The Potato Bug is interested in drag racing, and when Frankie expresses a similar interest, Dee Dee, out of spite, flirts with the Britisher. Eric Von Zipper and his motorcycle gang join Honeywagon's campaign against the surfers. Meanwhile, under Vivien's influence, Honeywagon begins to change his opinion of the youngsters. When Frankie and The Potato Bug plan to compete in a drag race, Von Zipper sabotages what he thinks is the Britisher's car, hoping that Frankie will be blamed. The sabotaged car is Frankie's, and he barely escapes when the car crashes after the race ends in a dead heat. Von Zipper is found out, and he and his gang are defeated in a fight at Big Drag's place and are sent away. The Potato Bug leaves, Frankie and Dee Dee are reconciled, and Vivien and Honeywagon become friends.