Skinny Dipping and Other Stories begins in Japan and ends in a Virginia military school. These short stories trace civilian girl Elaine Goodman and army brat Phil Boydon who meet in the spring of 1956. Elaine has lived in Virginia all her life; Phil is a world traveler at twelve. She is popular and he is, again, the new kid on the block. Oil and water do not mix. Or do they? When they do, they find her old friends, his new friends and their parents beginning to wonder about their closeness.