
Widow Kate Bradley and her three daughters - Bobbie Jo, Billie Jo and Bettie Jo - run the Shady Rest Hotel, a small-town inn where city folks come to enjoy the quiet. Nothing much happens around Hooterville, so it's up to the girls to come up with their own schemes for fun.

Uncle Joe convinces two overweight women that the Shady Rest is really a reducing farm, where their loss is management's gain.

Railroad executive Homer Bedloe arrives in Hooterville with a railroad tycoon, who is determined to purchase the Cannonball.

Kate faces a mother's dilemma when her youngest daughter falls in love.

Thanks to Uncle Joe, everyone in the valley knows that Steve is going to marry Betty Jo -- except Betty Jo.