In the summer of 1963, innocent 17-year-old Baby vacations with her parents at a Catskills resort. One evening, she is drawn to the staff quarters by stirring music. There she meets Johnny, the hotel dance instructor, who is as experienced as Baby is naive. Baby soon becomes Johnny's pupil in dance and love.

"Before there was 'tourism' or 'leisure time;' before souvenir ashtrays became 'camp' and 'kitsch;' before Goofy Golf became an 'attraction' and today's colossal theme parks could even be imagined, there was 'Beautiful Lake of the Ozarks -- Family Vacationland,' where to this day the ashtrays remain devoid of irony. It was here, at Arrowhead Lodge at Lake of the Ozarks, where Bill Geist spent his summers between high school and college working at...