A WWII drifter finds himself protecting schoolgirls and their beautiful teacher.

At the outbreak of World War II, American beachcomber Walter Eckland is coerced by his old friend, Australian Navy Comdr. Frank Houghton, into service as a coast-watcher on a South Pacific island. Under the code name "Mother Goose," the whiskey-loving Eckland is rewarded with a new bottle each time he spots an enemy movement. When he is ordered to rescue a spotter from another island, Eckland discovers that the man has been killed by Japanese strafers, and he finds seven stranded schoolgirls and their prim French mistress, Catherine Freneau. The two adults soon begin a contest of wills, with Catherine attempting to cure the unshaven Eckland of his drinking and use of salty language. The battle between the sexes remains a stalemate until the girls mistakenly tell Eckland that their mistress has been bitten by a poisonous snake; to ease her final hours, Eckland gets her drunk and admits that he used to be a history professor. The two discover they love each other, and they are married by radio during an air raid after it is revealed that the "snake" was actually a big stick. Houghton sends a submarine to rescue them, and a Japanese patrol boat threatens to sink it, but Eckland manages to destroy the vessel with his own launch, enabling his party of eight to be saved.