Southern belle MELINDA takes her husband GREG on an exotic cruise in an effort to rekindle their marriage. When she tries to entice him while he’s on a business call, Greg pushes her away. Melinda retreats, and remembers when things were different…

In a flashback, we see that Greg and Melinda were high school sweethearts split up by a bitter family dispute. Months after graduation, they see each other again—this time on the battleship USS Deliverance during the Vietnam War. Melinda is a nurse, and on making her rounds discovers that Greg is one of her new patients. Seeing him again raises a flood of old feelings—not all of them good…

Back on the cruise, Melinda meets ANDREA, a fellow nurse back during Vietnam. The two old friends catch up, and their chance encounter awakens more memories…

Greg decides he must reconcile with Melinda. It turns out that Greg’s father caught them years before having sex, and after shouting at his son, he said horrible things about Melinda. Out of cowardice, Greg didn’t stand up for the woman he loved, and they drifted apart. Now, after a heartfelt apology, Greg and Melinda make love aboard the battleship. Everything feels like old times.

In the present, Melinda is doing her best to make Greg jealous by dancing with other men. Her ruse backfires, though, and Greg becomes even more distant.

After their night of passion in Vietnam, Greg is visited by a flight school buddy named RANDY. When Randy kids him about ‘getting some action,’ Greg talks about Melinda—and she overhears. Horrified, she refuses to let him apologize. She tells Greg that she expected more out of him, and says she never wants to see him again.

During the cruise, Greg becomes extremely jealous. Angry, Melinda tells Greg she is leaving to go home. Greg, stunned, watches as she walks away…

Back in Vietnam, Melinda’s roommates persuade her to give Greg another chance. But when they try to radio the outpost Greg was sent to, they discover that he has left because of a ‘family emergency.’ Though she tries to hide it, Melinda is crushed.

So is Greg back in the present. Andrea forces him to go to a masquerade ball to try and cheer up. Once there, it seems to him that this has happened before—

And so it has. It was during a Navy masquerade ball that Melissa danced with a masked stranger—who just happened to be Greg in disguise! It turns out that his father died, and Greg had to return home for the funeral. Now he has come back to ask Melinda a very serious question: will she marry him?

In a fusion of the past and present, we see that Melinda never really left the cruise; she was planning to surprise Greg much the way he surprised her years before. As the young Melinda joyously accepts the wedding proposal, the married Melinda listens tearfully to her husband’s apologies and professions of love. Love is rekindled both now and then, and Melinda and Greg go on to live happily ever after as husband and wife.