Plot summary

Gabey, Chip, and Ozzie are among one wave of US Navy sailors from their ship on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, where none of them have ever been. With a 45-year-old guidebook in hand, Chip wants to see the sights, but gets sidetracked when he gets in the sights of smitten cabbie Hildy Esterhazy, who won't let him go as long as he's in the city. Ozzie, who is basically following his mates, might instead want to follow anthropologist Claire Huddesen, who is into prehistoric-looking men like Ozzie. Unlike his two friends, Gabey purposefully wants to spend his time with a beautiful, sophisticated New York gal. He believes he's found that girl, at least her photograph, when he sees a poster for the subway system's newly-crowned Miss Turnstiles for June: Ivy Smith; he mistakenly believes she the belle of New York high society. Based on the bio on the poster, Gabey goes on a search for her. His two pals help him, but manage equally to spend quality alone time with their respective new female friends. The questions become if Gabey will be able to find Ivy, if so if she will give him the time of day, and if he would feel the same about her if he knew that she's just a working girl from small-town USA trying to make it in the big city. Through it all, the six get into one misadventure after another--largely based on Hildy's long-overdue cab and Ozzie causing a mishap at a museum--as they take in all New York City has to offer.—Huggo