Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) meet in the army during WWII. Phil saves Bob's life, and Bob repays him by taking him into his successful nightclub act after the war. They work their way up onto the Broadway stage and produce their own shows. At what they think is the request of an old army buddy, they go to review a sister act. The sisters Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera Ellen). The girls are in a little legal trouble, so Phil gives them their train tickets to get out of town. The men run into the girls again on the train where Bob had to buy more tickets so they could sit up in a club car. Bob starts to take an interest in Betty. Bob and Phil decide to go to Vermont where the girls are booked in an inn. When they arrive they discover that the proprietor is General Waverly (Dean Jagger), their WWII commander. The almost-forgotten general is down on his luck because there's no snow, so Bob and Phil decide to stage their show from the inn. They also put out a call for other men in their old unit to amass at the inn on Christmas Eve to pay homage to the general.