After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year's Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis's father, a former army colonel who is already embarrassed by his son's inability to serve in WWII due to colour-blindness. Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father's favour is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster.