When a heat wave hits Baywatch, a long chaotic day begins with Secret Service agent Duddly Dawson arriving to take charge of the beach before President Clinton's afternoon jog there while he's in town. Agent Dawson's antics nearly drive Mitch and Samantha up the wall. Meanwhile, Cody suffers through relentless rescues with Newmie plus a visit by an IRS agent auditing him, and C.J. has to go to a dentist for a root-canal filling. Hobie helps Neely with various mishaps, including an obnoxious lost child, Manny deals with two lost kids of his own, and Jordan receives attention from another lost girl who grows attached to her. Also, Caroline meets a homeless man in a garbage can and later stops him from killing himself, and he's apparently the only one who seems to care that today is her birthday.

Shelly Sands, C.J.'s eccentric mother and former Vegas showgirl, arrives in town from Las Vegas seeking C.J.'s help to escape her mobster ex-boyfriend, Tony Blanton, and his goons. Blanton is determined to retrieve an incriminating computer disk of his gambling profits and income tax evasion schemes that Shelly stole as part of an insurance policy. When Blanton and his men hold C.J. and Shelly hostage on a remote beach, they force C.J. to look for the disk. But Mitch and Cody figure out what's going on in time to rescue them.