A young Harvard graduate with bright prospects, Bill Frothington is invited on board a steamer hosting a high-school dance, where he meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Mae. As the match is not considered socially advantageous enough, Bill moves on, marries and has a career, but he remains painfully nostalgic for that episode on the river.

A poignant tale which touches on the themes of yearning and lost youth that are central to many of Fitzgerald's novels and stories, `The Love Boat' is here presented with other lesser-known pieces which he wrote in the 1920s and explore the many facets of his creative talents.