Claire and Dan Claiborne suspect there's a catch when rich and stingy Mrs. Shelby Bell invites them to stay at the Bell Sands, her oceanfront resort east of Biloxi, Mississippi. Sure enough, Claire and Dan arrive at the hotel to be greeted by torrential rain and a beauty pageant spinning madly out of control.

Instead of sunshine and surfside romance, it's more stormy weather for the Claibornes as they attempt to discover who's sabotaging Miss Gulf Coast. When the beauties are threatened by a series of beastly homicides, Claire and Dan get too close to the truth and the murderer cuts them adrift in a boat on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mercy of yet another killer...a hurricane named Babe.