On a train trip West to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley (Judy Garland) meets a cheery crew of young women travelling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop to provide good cooking and wholesome company for railway travellers. When Susan and her bashful suitor find romance daunting, she joins the Harvey Girls instead. The saloon across the street with its alluring worldly-wise women offers them tough competition, fair and foul, and Susan catches the eye of the Ned Trent (John Hodiak), the distant but intense proprietor of the bar.