LOVE IN A GOLDFISH BOWL

Gordon Slide and Blythe Holloway are two platonic best friends at a college, both from single-parent families. They are so devoted to each other that the headmaster of the school is considering banning them from seeing each other.

Gordon then decides to spend the Easter holiday at his mother's beach pad. Blythe accompanies him, with Gordon impersonating the college headmaster on the phone to Blythe's senator father, so that Blythe gets permission.

Gordon and Blythe settle into a domestic routine. One day they take Gordon's yacht out and get caught in a storm, and the Coast Guard have to rescue them. One of the Coast Guard, Giuseppe, falls for Blythe, which provokes feelings of jealousy in Gordon.

Matters come to a head when Gordon and Blythe have a party. Giuseppe brings along a "fast" girl to set up with Gordon so he can be with Blythe. However this causes Blythe to be jealous. When Giuseppe makes a move on Blythe, she resists. Then another man, a drunken sailor, tries to molest Blythe, but Gordon rescues her.

Gordon and Blythe kiss – only to be busted by his socialite mother and Blythe's father. Everyone has a talk and Gordon's mother and Blythe's father realise how much they have been neglecting their children; they vow to do better. Blythe tells an apologetic Giuseppe that she will continue to write to him.

Blythe and Gordon return to college, now a couple, although the old routines of their relationship are still in play.

Gordon rescues Blythe from a drunken sailor, and after a kiss, their parents intervene. The parents vow to be more attentive, and Blythe and Gordon return to college as a couple, their old dynamics intact.

The ending resolves the central romantic tension by having Gordon and Blythe finally acknowledge their deeper feelings for each other, catalyzed by the events of their holiday and a dramatic rescue. The intervention from their parents provides closure for the subplot of parental neglect, while the couple’s return to college suggests that, despite newfound romance, the essence of their friendship endures. The film lands on a note of gentle growth rather than radical change—fitting for a story about love emerging from longstanding friendship.