This story takes place on a South Pacific Island where two ex-Navy men, John Wayne and Jack Warden stayed after World War 2 ended. Wayne runs a night club called Donovan's Reef, and Warden who was a doctor, also married a princess of the island. Warden was from Boston but chose not to return. He had a wife there and a daughter, but he wasn't needed there, and he was needed on the island as they did not have a doctor of any kind. Lee Marvin, another ex-shipmate shows up and he and wayne continue their fight. They always fight, about something. Elizabeth Allen plays the role of Warden's daughter from Boston who has come to the island looking for the father she once had. Everyone on the island plots to save the good doctors reputation. Needless to say, that's when the fun really begins.