Headstrong 17-year-old Baby Houseman hardly expects her family's usual summer vacation in the Catskills to be momentous. But then Baby spies Johnny Castle, the resort's dance instructor from the wrong side of the tracks. Johnny's facing a crisis: his dance partner and friend Penny is pregnant and has reluctantly decided to get an abortion. This leaves Johnny a solo act--until Baby agrees to take Penny's place. She has to learn how to dance first, however, and as Johnny teaches her the choreography's sexy, seductive moves, the two fall in love. But Baby's father believes that Johnny is the creep who got Penny pregnant, and he furiously orders Baby to end the relationship. Baby knows that Johnny's innocent--and with her feisty idealism and his dance talent, the two will prove to Baby's father that their love is worth fighting for.
It's summer, 1963. Frances, seventeen and innocent, is on holiday with her parents in the Catskills. She meets Johnny--the hotel dance instructor--and is mesmerised by him and his dance style. She soon becomes Johnny's prize pupil, in dance and in love.