When Dolly Gallagher Levi (Shirley Booth) is hired by Horace Vandergelder (Paul Ford) to find him a wife, she secretly starts to fall for him. He travels to New York City to meet Irene Molloy (Shirley MacLaine), but Dolly attempts to distract him with a fictitious woman. Meanwhile, Horace's employees, Cornelius (Anthony Perkins) and Barnaby (Robert Morse), also venture to New York, where they meet Irene. After everyone ends up by chance at the same restaurant, true feelings start to emerge.