Seventeen-year-old Ben Meecham waits with his family at a naval air station outside Atlanta, Georgia, watching for his father’s return from his yearlong deployment on the aircraft carrier. His mother, Lillian, and siblings Mary Anne, Karen, and Matthew stand beside him as Lillian leads the children in prayers for their father’s safe arrival.

Young Karen protests about leaving her Atlanta friends behind in the move to South Carolina. Mary Anne teases her that those friends are effectively dead and new ones in South Carolina will end the same way when they leave again at the end of the school year. Ben, acting as peacemaker, takes Mary Anne for a walk, during which she reveals she has been secretly reading their father’s letters to their mother and mocks the intimate contents. Ben reflects on how their mother has grown stricter over the past month, preparing the children for their father’s return and the transfer of household authority.

They hear the approaching transport plane. Lillian orchestrates the family greeting, positioning each child. Bull Meecham appears in the aircraft doorway and bellows his signature phrase, “Stand by for a fighter pilot” (21). The family runs to embrace him. The Great Santini (Bull’s nickname for himself with the family) is home.

One month later, Bull wakes his family at two in the morning to begin their move to Ravenel, South Carolina. After exercising and praying the rosary while running in place, he abruptly wakes each child. His mother-in-law, Alice Sole, appears in the kitchen for a farewell marked by affectionate insults before tearfully saying goodbye.

Bull places an unloaded .22 pistol on the dashboard alongside maps and cigars. When he uses a racial slur to justify carrying the weapon, Lillian objects, sparking an argument. The family pulls away singing the Marine Corps hymn, their traditional first song of any journey, with Bull’s off-key solo prompting the family dog to bark in protest.

Lillian initiates a rosary. During prayers, Mary Anne makes an obscene gesture at Ben. Afterward, Ben takes first “guard duty,” sitting in the passenger seat to keep his father awake and entertained. Bull admits that his greatest flying fear is hitting birds and insists Ben will become a Marine pilot. When Ben asks about his uncle Dan, killed in combat, Bull declares that only poor pilots die in action but acknowledges Dan was brave. Later, Bull deliberately runs over turtles crossing the highway until Lillian confronts him.

Before dawn, a freight train halts the family at a rural crossing. Bull exits the car, captivated by trains that remind him of his Chicago roots, and orders a rest stop. Everyone knows that they will not be given another.

As daylight arrives, they are 65 miles from Ravenel. Bull and Lillian discuss fellow Marine families’ current assignments. Ben reflects on his Georgia birth certificate as his sole claim to permanence amid a childhood of temporary military accommodations.

Bull criticizes Ben for using the word “y’all” and quizzes the children on world capitals, praising their geographic knowledge as superior to civilian children’s. Mary Anne begins crying, saying she already hates their destination, and she catches her tears in a stolen teaspoon to flick at the back of her father’s head. The children bicker until Bull, exhausted and angry, threatens physical punishment. His tone instantly silences them, and they continue toward Ravenel in tense quiet.

The family drives into Ravenel, passing liquor stores and mobile homes before reaching the historic riverfront district with columned mansions and live oaks. Bull explains that base housing for field-grade officers is full, requiring them to rent privately. He pulls into the driveway of a large, paint-needy house overlooking the river. Lillian is thrilled by the house. She explores the interior, delighted by the old mansion she has always dreamed of inhabiting, even if it is run-down.

On the front porch, Bull assembles the children and delivers a speech forbidding further complaints about moving. He emphasizes their superior status as Marine children and orders them to dominate their new community. Before Bull leaves for the base, Lillian advises him to be friendly and restrained. Ben gets his father’s uniform ready and polishes his father’s inspection shoes to a mirror shine, one of his duties, before Bull departs.

Movers arrive and complete their work by mid-afternoon. Lillian organizes the children to unpack and arrange the living room, sets up the family’s Catholic shrine beneath the stairway—including a plastic model of Bull’s fighter jet as part of the display—and leads a prayer thanking God for safe travel. They all know that by the time Bull gets home, they want the house to be in order—chaos makes him irritable and unpredictable.

Bull drives to Ravenel Marine Air Station. When he considers the young gate guard’s salute inadequate, he forces him to repeat it and warns him that Colonel Bull Meecham has arrived.

At the Operations Building, Bull attempts to prank his superior and best friend, Colonel Virgil Hedgepath, by pulling him under a bathroom partition stall. He discovers, however, that the man isn’t Virgil; he is a corporal. He intimidates the man into silence by claiming the attack was a classified combat-readiness test, then lectures him on vigilance and obedience.

Bull then surprises Virgil in his office, but Hedgepath anticipates the ambush and wrestles him to the floor. The two friends, bonded by 20 years of service, discuss business: Squadron 367 has deteriorated under recent commanders, and Bull, as the new squadron commander, must restore it. Hedgepath warns Bull that his commanding officer, Colonel Joe Varney, isn’t happy about Bull’s appointment but recognizes that it is necessary because Bull is the best at marshalling a group of men into order. Bull and Varney have known each other for a long time and despise each other.

Bull reports to Varney, who deliberately keeps him waiting, addresses him by his hated given name Wilbur, and acknowledges their mutual animosity. Varney says he hired Bull only because better candidates were unavailable, threatens to destroy his career if given any opportunity, and orders him to restore the squadron quickly amid potential Cuba-related operations. Bull notices a wartime WWII photograph of them together and remembers breaking Varney’s nose.

Bull wakes early and decides to rouse his family with a mock attack drill. He moves through the bedrooms playing an imaginary bugle and pulling children from their beds, ordering everyone to defensive positions. In the living room, Bull and Ben take cover behind overturned furniture while Matthew charges with a broomstick bazooka and Karen successfully stabs her father’s backside with a bathroom plunger.

Mary Anne descends the stairs with visible contempt for the game and announces that she is writing a book about her father, beginning with the line about being born to a “beast.” Lillian prepares breakfast while Bull pounds his chest and shouts a list of self-proclaimed titles for himself—the Great Santini, the Beast of Ravenel—boasting about his unique personality while the family trades jokes at his expense.