Hap Smith, a nightclub entertainer, has a new act since his former partner Chick Allen joined the army. Hap is now a clownish parody of a soldier with his lovely new female partner. When Chick organizes a soldier show at Fort Benning, he realizes he needs his former partner's assistance—so, in order to gain access to the base, Hap impersonates a hapless real soldier, but circumstances force them to prolong the masquerade, resulting in an increasingly tangled Army-sized SNAFU.