- A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may be a murderess.
- In Los Angeles, on the day of her birthday, the telephone operator Norah Larkin decides to celebrate dining alone at home, with the picture of her beloved fiancé, a soldier overseas, and reading his last letter to her. In the letter, he tells her that he met an Army nurse stationed in Japan and plans to marry her. Norah, completely upset, accepts a blind date with the Don Juan and photographer of calendar girls, Harry Prebble. They go to the Blue Gardenia Club, and Norah drinks six strong cocktails, Polynesian Pearl Divers, and gets very, very drunk. Harry takes her to his apartment and tries to force Norah to have sex, and she grabs a fireplace poker to fend off Harry. On the next morning, she wakes up in her apartment with her two roommates, but she cannot remember what happened. When she reads the newspaper, she finds that Harry is dead and the police have her handkerchief, her high heels, and her blue gardenia, and they are trying to locate the woman who killed the famous wolf Harry. When she reads in the newspaper that the journalist Casey Mayo is offering his support, as well as his newspaper's, in exchange for an exclusive interview, Norah decides to call him.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Norah Larkin is a telephone operator who plans to spend her birthday evening alone with her boyfriend - or rather, with his photograph and a letter she just received from him. The real guy is 6000 miles away in Korea. While her two roommates - Crystal, a wisecracking divorcée, and Sally, a sweet girl with a taste for bloodthirsty mystery novels - are gone, Norah, wearing a black taffeta dress and sipping champagne, reads the letter and blanches. Her sweetheart has dumped her. She ends up spending the rest of her evening with Harry Prebble, a wolf who draws girls for a living and ruins them as a hobby. He takes her to the Blue Gardenia, and they listen to Nat King Cole as Harry gets her very drunk on Polynesian Pearl Divers. The next morning she wakes up with a terrible hangover. At work she learns of a murderess, soon to be called the Blue Gardenia Girl. The label is invented by newspaper columnist Casey Mayo, who hopes to find the femme fatale before the police. What worries Norah is that he and the police may both be looking for her.—J. Spurlin
- Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) is the star reporter of the newspaper world and everybody knows him by his reputation as writer and a playboy. Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr) is a star commercial artist and a playboy too it seems when we meet him amidst the pool of female telephone receptionists. Both men are cruising for a date, and Crystal (Ann Southern) readily offers her phone number to Mayo, who gives it over to Prebble with Crystal's flirtatious objections. Another side of Prebble's character is seen later when he coldly rebuffs a former lover over the phone when she pleads for his attention. Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter), Crystal (Ann Southern) and Sally (Jeff Donnell) live together in what seems like a one-bedroom house and share the household duties. Each woman is shown to have a particular personality in a household built on positive outlook about life and careers. Norah plans a solitary dinner doting on the picture of her fianc, a GI stationed in Korea, but is heartbroken when his letter to her states that he is marrying someone else. Norah tries to rebound by meeting Harry Prebble who has phoned for Crystal. At dinner Prebble plies Norah with drink and charm and lures her back to his studio apartment. When he tries to force himself on her, she hits him with a poker and runs out drunken and confused. Prebble is found dead the next morning, and Norah, blanking from the alcohol she consumed, and seeing news headlines believes she may have killed him. Casey Mayo, trying to develop a story angle, comes up with the idea of publishing an open letter to the "Blue Gardenia Murderess", to turn herself in with protection from the newspaper. Norah contacts Mayo pretending to be a friend of the murderess with information on the case and the two begin to fall in love. The Police catch up with Norah soon after, and Mayo, reviewing the circumstances surrounding the murder aids the Police in further questioning of possible suspects with a startling discovery.
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