The main focus of ''Where the Boys Are'' is the "coming of age" of four girl students at a midwestern university during spring vacation. Merritt Andrews (Dolores Hart), the smart and assertive leader of the quartet, expresses the opinion in class that premarital sex might be something young women should experience. Her speech eventually inspires the insecure Melanie Tolman (Yvette Mimieux) to lose her virginity soon after the young women arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Tuggle Carpenter (Paula Prentiss) seeks to be a "baby-making machine," lacking only a man to join her in marriage. Angie (Connie Francis) rounds out the group as an athletic girl who is clueless when it comes to romance.