At the cruise terminal on Thursday morning, Keith and Shawn, his older brother, wait to board, held at the gangway by a cruise employee. Keith is already dreading the event, while Shawn is energized. Keith recalls the band’s 15-year hiatus after Corey dissolved the group: Shawn built a chain of pizza restaurants, Scotty came out as gay and invested in nightclubs, Terrence hosted a television show about aliens, and Keith recorded a solo album that quietly failed. Corey, meanwhile, became a major star, before he eventually returned to the band needing the Talkers’ goodwill after public scandals. Keith was reluctant to reunite in 2009, but Shawn pressed him using arguments of loyalty to the group and their late mother. Keith has since made peace with the band as a part-time arrangement, though the cruise remains the most draining thing they do. Sarah appears at the far end of the gangway and greets the brothers.

Annie, a 50-year-old marketing director at Opera Weekly, arrives at the Miami, Florida, terminal alone and conspicuously underdressed among the elaborately costumed Talkers. Her sister, Katherine, who planned the trip as her own 45th birthday present, broke her leg and couldn’t attend. Katherine has remained a devoted fan, while a college roommate shamed Annie out of her own teen fandom. Annie is also recently divorced from her ex-husband, Chris, and her daughter, Claudia, has grown up and moved out.

In her cabin on Deck 2, Annie meets her assigned roommate, Maira, a veteran of every Boy Talk cruise who is enthusiastically devoted to Shawn. Maira tells Annie that Shawn hosts private, no-phones parties after midnight. Annie realizes that she has drastically under-packed for the costume-heavy culture. She then opens her laptop to find an email from her boss, Geoff, demoting her and installing the magazine’s intern, Kayla, as her technical supervisor due to Kayla’s social-media presence. When Annie calls to push back, Geoff implies that older staff are obsolete. Maira suggests that they use their prepaid drink package to take the edge off, and Annie agrees.

Sarah prepares a welcome lunch in the Sanctuary, the band’s access-controlled hospitality suite on Deck 7. Bobby arrives and asks about an unfamiliar name on the room list—Jonathan Schenk—a guest booked by Shawn a few weeks prior. Bobby is mildly unsettled but lets it go. Scotty arrives in good spirits, joking about the gathering. Sarah goes to collect the remaining members. When Keith steps into the hallway, Sarah notes that he’s wearing a seasickness patch and is the only band member whose room she has equipped with an ashtray. At Terrence’s door, she finds him and his much younger wife, Kelsey, emerging from a sexual encounter. She sends Keith ahead to the suite and watches to make sure he doesn’t retreat to his room.

Shawn arrives at the hospitality suite with Jonathan, a tall, bearded man who greets everyone with a two-handed handshake and speaks in a mix of spiritual and business language. Shawn introduces him as his new executive coach and holistic adviser; Jonathan hands out cards for his company, Wolf Management + Production. Shawn frames the hire as a response to Corey’s recent public troubles. Keith is blindsided, as Shawn said nothing about this all morning. Bobby waits in cautious silence before agreeing. Shawn tries to rally the group, and Keith dutifully claps along, filling his usual role as the accommodating younger brother.

Sarah receives word that Corey is at the terminal and goes alone to meet him. The moment Corey steps onto the deck, fans on both sides of a roped corridor erupt into screaming. In the elevator to Deck 7, Corey is quiet and withdrawn. Outside the Sanctuary, Corey stops to sign autographs and hugs a woman who breaks into tears. Inside, he asks Sarah whether the Talkers care about his recent troubles. She tells him honestly that she doesn’t think they do, and his mood improves. Tyler arrives moments later.

Annie and Maira claim barstools early for the sail-away party on the packed lido deck. Maira supplies them with sweet, alcoholic slushies called Sexy Sunrises. When Boy Talk appears on a balcony above the crowd, Annie is caught off guard and cries openly. Maira puts a hand on her shoulder, clearly unsurprised. Annie asks whether the fans hold Corey’s indiscretions against him; Maira confirms that their loyalty is unconditional. The ship’s horn signals departure from Miami. The men descend to the stage to dance and clap over a backing track. Annie finds herself learning the words to a song she hadn’t remembered and lets the collective energy carry her along.

Keith returns to his cabin after the sail-away party. He refuses to adopt Steffani’s contemptuous attitude toward the fans, crediting the Talkers with financing his entire adult life. He tries calling his wife and his daughter, but neither answers—Madison, he notes, now posts TikTok videos mocking Boy Talk to her countless followers. Keith’s marriage has settled into a numb detachment. He and Steffani have separate rooms, rarely have sex, and don’t talk: a silence he finds more troubling than their previous arguments. While heading to the greenroom, he bumps into Corey in the hallway. Being near Corey stirs up a mix of sadness, jealousy, and anger; Corey still looks youthful and immediately dismisses the ship as a low-end hotel. Inside the greenroom, Scotty notices that Keith looks worn out and offers to fetch him some eye cream.

Backstage at the Broadway Theater, Sarah prepares for the Quiz Show. Shawn and Scotty hold an impromptu push-up competition in the wings, which Shawn wins. She cues the introductions in the band’s fixed order from least to most popular: Terrence, Scotty, Keith, Corey, and Shawn. Sarah privately notes that she finds Terrence the most unsettling person on the ship. While waiting backstage, Shawn tells Sarah that a live audience response gives Corey something his film career never can, and he reveals that he was present when Corey had sex for the first time. After Shawn takes the stage, Sarah dispatches Tyler to help a DJ with a technical problem. On her way out, she notices Jonathan lingering near the back of the theater, watching Tyler leave with a raised eyebrow.

Annie and Maira eat at the buffet before the Game Night deck party, where Maira shows Annie photos of elaborate costumes from previous cruises. Over dinner, a group of women gives Maira pointed looks; Maira dismisses them as former friends, noting that the fandom carries its share of rivalry. Back on deck, a man in a beer-pong costume flirting with two women causes Annie to feel a sense of romantic possibility for the first time since her divorce. Her mind drifts to the past, recalling first kisses, college encounters, and a kind ex-boyfriend she let go. Boy Talk then appears in Pokémon costumes: Terrence as Pikachu, Scotty as Snorlax, Keith and Corey as matching Team Rocket villains, and Shawn as a shirtless Ash Ketchum. Keith waves toward Annie’s section, and she waves back before she can stop herself. She takes photos for Katherine and then grasps that the intensity of the shared experience around her is the same pull that drives people toward any communal ritual.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Keith attends Shawn’s unofficial party in the closed John Travolta Disco on Deck 5, primarily to avoid his brother’s anger at a no-show. He values the room’s no-phones rule as a rare respite from being photographed. While sitting with Scotty, Keith learns that Scotty’s boyfriend has ended things over a desire for a domestic life that Scotty has never wanted. When Scotty asks about Steffani, Keith says she’s fine, revealing nothing further. Scotty voices his unease about Jonathan. Keith watches Shawn move through the room with bottomless energy and thinks about the mutual exchange between the band and its fans—what Steffani calls “feeding the beast” (78). He gets up and joins a circle of women on the dance floor, which temporarily lifts his exhaustion.

Sarah holds a late-night debrief with her JackRabbit crew in a closed restaurant on Deck 4. She praises the day’s work, announces a nine o’clock call time for the morning, and dismisses everyone. While walking back to her cabin, she reflects on Boy Talk’s work ethic, dismissing the assumption that past wealth makes their effort irrelevant. While Scotty, Terrence, and Shawn can’t sing well, Keith and Corey compensate with their powerful vocals, and she respects the entire group’s dedication. That consistency, she believes, is the actual engine of their continued success. She reaches her cabin and falls asleep in her clothes.