Charity Hope Valentine [Shirley MacLaine] works as a taxi dancer along with her friends Nickie [Chita Rivera] and Helene [Paula Kelly], and she longs for love, but her track record with men is rocky. Her misfortune begins when her married boyfriend, Charlie, pushes her off Gapstow Bridge in Central Park and steals her life savings of $427. The Fandango Ballroom and its sleazy, erotic energy are introduced by the show-stopping number Big Spender, and Charity shares her disappointments and quiet hopes with Nickie and Helene in several scenes throughout the film.
Somewhat later, Charity meets famous movie star Vittorio Vitale [Ricardo Montalban] just as he breaks up with his girlfriend Ursula [Barbara Bouchet]. Charity goes to a nightclub, where guests perform The Rich Man's Frug, and later has dinner with Vittorio at his apartment. When Vittorio leaves the room momentarily, Charity celebrates what seems to be her good fortune with If They Could See Me Now. Right after, Ursula returns to Vittorio, and Charity is forced to spend a humiliating night in a closet while Vittorio and Ursula make love and sleep together. Charity again returns to the Fandango, where she, Nickie, and Helene commiserate on the building's rooftop with There’s Got to Be Something Better Than This.
Looking for a more respectable and rewarding line of work, Charity goes to an employment agency, but she is forced to admit that she has no higher education or qualifications, and the interviewer thinks she has been sent in as a joke. She agrees that she has and leaves. The building's elevator breaks down between floors and Charity supports a man who starts to panic. This is the shy and claustrophobic Oscar Lindquist [John McMartin], who pursues Charity onto the street and finally asks her to go on a date with him. The two go out together several times, including a visit to an alternative church presided over by a preacher named Big Daddy [Sammy Davis Jr.] and "worshiping" with the song The Rhythm of Life.
Charity does not tell Oscar what her job is and lets him think she works in a bank. Oscar proposes marriage and professes to be broadminded when she does finally tell him her trade. Charity's hopes are once again lifted, celebrated in the huge production number I'm a Brass Band. Oscar meets Charity's friends at the Fandango when they throw a party for her. However at the marriage license bureau Oscar tells her that he has tried to accept her past but is unable to go through with the marriage.
Charity returns to the bridge in Central Park where she first appeared in the film and seems ready to throw herself off it, but a passing group of young hippies singing about love and peace hand her a flower, lifting her spirits.
