Emma and Dean are high school students on a class trip to Trinidad to build a school for less fortunate children. Emma is the star pupil with excellent grades and plans for her life set out before her. When the high school quarterback begins flirting with her, her friends pressure her to start a relationship with him, but she instead continues throwing furtive glances at Dean, a mysterious loner who routinely gets in trouble and doesn't socialize much since his mother passed years earlier. After his knife is confiscated, his father pulls strings to get his son back on the trip. On their first night in Trinidad they separately attend a boat party, where Emma is hurt to see one of her friends kissing the quarterback. During the boat party, Emma falls overboard when the party is interrupted by a police raid. Dean jumps into the water and helps her into a dinghy. Not wanting to get into any more trouble, Dean severs the rope attaching the dinghy to the party boat, only to find it has no motor.