At the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898, grumpy and overprotective Irish widower Dennis O'Grady (James Barton (vaudevillian)) has three daughters. The oldest, Katie (Marcia Mae Jones), welcomes her husband James Moore (Sean McClory), whom she has married in secret, home from the army. The youngest two, Patricia (June Haver) and Maureen (Debbie Reynolds), pass a vaudeville theater owned by Tony Pastor (Gordon MacRae). Patricia recognizes the man from earlier that afternoon when he mocked her father, and she scolds him for his actions.