On a train trip West to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley (Judy Garland) meets a cheery crew of young women traveling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop to provide good cooking and wholesome company for railway travelers. 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 Ned Trent (John Hodiak), the bar's distant but intense proprietor.—Michael Meigs