In May 1959, in the town of Cape Anne, Maine, a foul-up by the Eastern & Portland Railroad (E&P) results in the death of 300 lobsters shipped by Jane Osgood (Doris Day), an attractive, widowed businesswoman with two children. She gets her lawyer and friend, George Denham (Jack Lemmon), to go after the E&P to pay damages after her customer, the Marshalltown Country Club, refuses all future orders.