Spending the summer in a holiday camp with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor Johnny Castle.

Johnny: Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
Baby: Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you.
Baby: I carried a watermelon.
[Johnny walks away]
Baby: [to herself] Carried a watermelon?
Johnny: Sorry for the interruption, folks, but I always do the last dance of the season. This year somebody told me not to. So I'm gonna do my kind of dancin' with a great partner, who's not only a terrific dancer, but somebody... who's taught me... that there are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them. Somebody who's taught me about the kind of person I wanna be. Miss Frances Houseman.
Penny: Oh, come on, ladies. God wouldn't have given you maracas if He didn't want you to shake 'em.
Johnny: Look, spaghetti arms. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don't go into yours, you don't go into mine. You gotta hold the frame.
Johnny: I'll never be sorry.
Baby: Neither will I.
Baby: [finding out the Schumacher's were guilty of stealing the wallets] So then - so then it's all right! I knew it would work out. I knew they'd have to apologize...
Johnny: [shrugs her off] I'm out, Baby.
Baby: [pause] They fired you anyway because of me.
Johnny: [sarcastically] And if I leave quietly, I'll get my summer bonus.
Baby: So I did it for nothing. I hurt my family, you lost your job anyway, I did it for *nothing*!
Johnny: No, no, not for nothin', Baby! Nobody has ever done anything like that for me before.
Baby: You were right, Johnny. You can't win no matter what you do!
Johnny: You listen to me. I don't wanna hear that from you. *You* can!
Baby: [pause] I used to think so.
Robbie Gould: [sees Baby comforting Johnny] Well, it looks like I picked the wrong sister. That's okay, Baby, I went slummin' too.
[Johnny jumps off the porch and starts beating him up]
Baby: Oh, yes, as a matter of fact it is. We're supposed to do the show in two days, you won't show me the lifts, I'm not sure of the turns, I'm doing all this to save your ass, what I really want to do is drop you on it!
Johnny: [talking about Neil] That little wimp. He wouldn't know a new idea if it hit him in the Pachenga. He wanted some new ideas? I could've *told* him some new ideas!
Baby: Well, why did you let him talk to you that way?
Johnny: What do you mean, and fight the bossman?
Baby: Yeah, tell him your ideas! He's a person like everyone else. I'm sure he'll think they're great.
Johnny: Look, I know these people, Baby. They're all rich and they're mean. They won't listen to me.
Baby: Well, then why not fight harder? *Make* them listen?
Johnny: Because, I need this goddamn job lined up for next summer!
[chuckles scornfully]
Johnny: My dad calls me today, he says - with good news - you know, he says, "Uncle Paul can finally get you in the union."
Baby: Oh, what-what union?
Johnny: The House Painters and Plasterers, local number 179, at your service.
[Baby's father, sister, and Robbie come out of the house next to the trail; Baby pulls Johnny down so they won't see them together]
Lisa Houseman: I've been thinking a lot about the Domino Theory. Now, when Vietnam falls, is China next?
[the trio passes]
Baby: I don't think they saw us.
Johnny: [getting up] Fight harder, huh? I don't see you fighting so hard, Baby. I don't see you running up to daddy telling him I'm your guy.
Baby: I will. With my father, it's complicated. I *will* tell him, I...
Johnny: I don't believe you, Baby! I don't think that you ever had any intention of telling him. Ever.
[stalks off]
Johnny: What's your real name, Baby?
Baby: Frances. For the first woman in the Cabinet.
[laughs]
Johnny: Frances. That's a real grown up name.
[last lines]
Jake Houseman: I know you weren't the one who got Penny in trouble.
Johnny: Yeah.
Jake Houseman: When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong.
[to Baby]
Jake Houseman: You looked wonderful out there.
Johnny: It's not on the one, it's not the mambo. It's a feeling; a heartbeat.
Baby: Have you had many women?
Johnny: What?
Baby: Have you *had* many women?
Johnny: Baby, come on.
Baby: Tell me. I wanna know.
Johnny: No, no. Look, you've gotta understand what it's like, Baby. You come from the streets and suddenly you're up here, and these women, they are throwing themselves at ya, and they smell so good, and they really take care of themselves. I mean, I never knew women could be like that, you know? And they're so rich, they're so goddam rich, you think they must know about everything. And they're slipping their room keys in my hands, two and three times day, different women. So, here I think I'm scoring big, right? And for a while, you think, hey, they wouldn't be doing this if they didn't care about me, right?
Baby: That-that's alright, I understand. You were just using them, that's all.
Johnny: No, no that's not it. That's the thing, Baby, see it wasn't like that. They were using me.
Johnny: You don't understand the way it is, I mean for somebody like me. Last month, I'm-I-I'm eating Jujubes to keep alive, this month women are stuffing diamonds in my pockets. I'm bouncing on shit and quick as that I could be down there again.
Johnny: You just put your pickle on everybody's plate, college boy, and leave the hard stuff to me.
[first lines]
Radio disc jockey: [on radio] Hi, everybody, this is your Cousin Brucie. Whoa! Our summer romances are in full bloom, and everybody, but everybody's in love. So cousins, here's a great song from The Four Seasons.
Baby: [voiceover] That was the summer of 1963 - when everybody called me Baby, and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came, when I couldn't wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I'd never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the summer we went to Kellerman's.
Johnny: Don't put your heel down; don't put your heel down!
Lisa Houseman: Oh, my God. Look at that! Ma, I should have brought those coral shoes. You said I was taking too much!
Marjorie Houseman: Well, sweetheart, you brought ten pairs.
Lisa Houseman: But the coral shoes match that dress!
Jake Houseman: This is not a tragedy. A tragedy is three men trapped in a mine, or police dogs used in Birmingham.
Baby: Monks burning themselves in protest.
Lisa Houseman: Butt out, Baby.
Penny: Go back to your playpen, Baby.
Johnny: Now, you'll hurt me if you don't trust me, all right?
Jake Houseman: Don't you tell me what to see! I see someone in front of me who got his partner in trouble and sent her off to some butcher, while he moved on to an innocent young girl like my daughter!
[silence]
Johnny: [angry] Yeah, I guess that's what you *would* see.
Baby: [talking about Penny] So what's wrong? What's the matter with her?
Billy Kostecki: She's knocked up, Baby.
Johnny: Billy!
Baby: [eyeing Johnny] What's he gonna do about it?
Johnny: [angrily] What's he gonna to do about it? Oh, it's *mine*, right? Right away you think it's *mine*.
Johnny: Yeah, it takes a real saint to ask Daddy.
Johnny: Just put your pickles on the plate college boy. Leave the hard stuff to me.
Lisa Houseman: Where is my beige iridescent lipstick?
Johnny: Sure Neil. No problem. We'll end the season with the pachenga.
Johnny: You wanna hear something crazy? Last night I... I dreamed we were walking along and we met your father. He said, "Come on," and he put his arm around me. Just like he did with Robbie.
Penny: Johnny, what are you doing?
Johnny: Don't worry about Max; I'll tell him your grandmother died, or somethin'.
Penny: How many times have you told me never to get mixed up with them?
Johnny: [pause] I know what I'm doing, Penny.
Penny: You listen to me; you've gotta stop it, now.
Robbie Gould: I didn't blow a summer hauling toasted bagels just to bail out some little chick who probably balled every guy in the place.
[Baby is pouring water into glasses for him]
Robbie Gould: A little precision please, Baby. Some people count and some people don't.
[brings out a copy of The Fountainhead from his pocket]
Robbie Gould: Read it. I think it's a book you'll enjoy, but make sure you return it; I have notes in the margin.
Baby: You make me sick. Stay away from me, stay away from my sister or I'll have you fired.
[Baby pours the jug of water on his crotch]
Lisa Houseman: I've decided to go all the way with Robbie.
Baby: Oh, Lisa, no. Not with someone like him.
Lisa Houseman: Do you think if we came back here for a our tenth anniversary, it would be free?
Baby: It-it's just wrong this way. It should be with someone - it should be with someone that you sort of love.
Lisa Houseman: Oh, come on. You don't care about me. You wouldn't care if I humped the entire army... as long as they were on the right side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Stan: My God, it's Cleopatra. I feel like such an asp.
Billy Kostecki: [Watching Penny and Johnny dance] You'd think they were a couple, wouldn't ya?
Baby: Well, aren't they?
Billy Kostecki: Naw, not since we were kids.
Neil Kellerman: I have to say it. I'm known as the catch of the county.
Baby: I'm sure you are.
Neil Kellerman: But, last week, I took a girl from Jamie, the lifeguard. And he said to her, right in front of me, "What does he have that I don't have?" And she said, "Two hotels."
Jake Houseman: Max, our Baby's gonna change the world.
Max: [to Lisa] And what are you gonna do, missy?
Baby: Oh, Lisa's going to decorate it.
Robbie Gould: She already does.
Max: [to the Houseman Family] This Danish is pure protein.
Marjorie Houseman: [while watching Baby dance] I think she gets this from me.
Baby: Who's that?
[they look over at Johnny and Penny dancing]
Neil Kellerman: Oh, them. They're the dance people. They're here to keep the, uh, guests happy.
Lisa Houseman: God, I am so sick of this rain. Remind me not to take my honeymoon at Niagara Falls.
Marjorie Houseman: So, you go to Acapulco, it'll be fine.
Stan: You know I finally met a girl exactly like my mother dress like her, acts like her so I brought her home my Father doesn't like her!
[Stan and the audience start laughing]
Stan: Go figure!
Johnny: No, the-the way he saved her. I-I mean, I-I could never do anything like that. That was somethin'. I mean, the reason people treat me like I'm nothin' is because I'm nothin'.
Max: I want you girls to know if it were not for this man, I'd be standing here dead.
Marjorie Houseman: It's his first real vacation in six years, Max. Take it easy.
Max: Three weeks here, it'll feel like a year.
Jake Houseman: I won't tell your mother about this. Right now, I'm going to bed. And take that stuff off your face before your mother sees you.