Truvy (Dolly Parton) rules her small-town beauty parlor like an Italian mamma presides over her extended family – loud, occasionally foul-mouthed, but always completely in charge. No wonder the town's ladies keep beating a path to her door: the rich and eccentric widow Ouiser, forever fretting over her ailing daughter, Annelle, or Clairee, the biggest gossip in town. When these women get together at Truvy's, there's never a dull moment.