Synopsis for
The Women (1939)

Based on the 1936 play by Clare Boothe Luce, The Women follows the lives of a handful of wealthy Manhattan women, focusing in particular on Mary Haines (Norma Shearer), a cheerful, contented wife of Stephen and mother of Little Mary. After a bit of gossip flies around the salon these wealthy women visit, Mary's friend and cousin Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell) learns from a manicurist that Mary's husband has been having an affair with a predatory perfume counter girl named Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford). A notorious gossip, Sylvia delights in sharing the news with Mary's other friends, who set up Mary with an appointment with the same manicurist so that she hears the same rumor about Stephen's infidelity. While Mary's mother urges her to ignore the gossip concerning the affair and continue on as if nothing has happened, Mary begins to have her own suspicions about her husband's increasingly frequent claims that he needs to work late, and decides to travel to Bermuda with her mother and daughter to think about the situation and hope that the affair and the rumors surrounding it will fade. Upon her return from Bermuda a few months later, feeling well-rested and more sure of herself, Mary heads out to a fashion show at a high-end clothing store and learns that Crystal is in attendance, trying on clothes from the show a few dressing rooms down. Mary storms into Crystal's dressing room and confronts her about the affair, but Crystal is completely unapologetic and reveals that Stephen plans on divorcing Mary to marry her. Heartbroken and humiliated by the revelation, Mary leaves quickly. The meeting will not fade from gossip circles, however, and the situation is only exacerbated by Sylvia, who manages to turn the whole affair into a tabloid scandal by recounting the entire story to a notorious gossip columnist. To save her own pride, Mary chooses to divorce her husband despite his efforts to convince her to stay. Mary explains the divorce to her daughter Little Mary (Virginia Weidler), and the household prepares for Mary's departure.

Leaving on a train to Reno where she will spend the weeks until their divorce is legal, Mary meets several women with the same destination and purpose: the dramatic, extravagant Countess DeLave (Mary Boland); Miriam Aarons (Paulette Goddard), the tough cookie chorus girl; and, to her surprise, her good friend Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine), a sweet, shy girl. Upon reaching Reno, Mary and her new friends settle in at a ranch to await their final divorces, and are given plenty of advice by Lucy (Marjorie Main), the plain-spoken and gruffly warm-hearted woman who runs the ranch. Time passes at the ranch, and the women discuss their marriages and impending divorces; the Countess tells tales of her multiple husbands and seems to have found another in Reno, a young cowboy named Buck Winston, whom she will marry shortly; Miriam reveals she has been having an affair with Sylvia Fowler's husband and is going to Reno to get a divorce from her current husband so that she can marry him; and the women convince Peggy, who has discovered that she is pregnant, to call her husband, resolve their misunderstanding and end the divorce proceedings, which she successfully does. During this time, Sylvia Fowler arrives at the ranch, since her husband has requested a divorce. When Sylvia discovers that Miriam is set to become the new Mrs. Fowler, a catfight ensues, and Mary succeeds in breaking the fight up, ending with Miriam convincing her that she, too, should forget her pride and call her husband and try to patch things up before their divorce becomes legal in a few hours. Mary heads to the phone to call Stephen, but it rings before she can call him. The call is from Stephen, and he informs Mary that he and Crystal have just been married.

Two years pass, and the story picks up at the Haines apartment, where Crystal, the new Mrs. Haines, is taking a bubble bath and talking on the phone to her lover, who turns out to be Buck Winston, now the husband of the Countess DeLave and a successful radio star. Little Mary enters the bathroom and overhears the conversation, before being shooed away by Crystal, who has no time or patience for her. Through Crystal's interaction with Little Mary and phone conversation with Buck, it becomes clear that Stephen has grown weary of Crystal, but seems to be sticking with her since he has no other options. Sylvia Fowler, who is now friends with Crystal, visits during this time, too, and figures out with whom Crystal has been speaking and having an affair. Still an unrelenting gossip, Sylvia tucks this information away for use later. Meanwhile, Mary hosts a dinner for all of her Reno friends, to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Countess and Buck, as well has her own divorce. When the dinner concludes, the Countess, Miriam and Peggy decide to head out to a party and urge Mary to come along, but Mary begs off and decides to stay home. While getting ready for bed, she chats with Little Mary, who inadvertently reveals how unhappy Stephen is, as well as Crystal's affair. This news changes Mary's mind, who decides to get out of bed, get dressed up and head off to the party, intent on fighting to get her ex-husband back.

At the party, Mary makes a grand entrance, and pulls all of the women into the ladies room for a showdown. Mary tells the Countess that her husband Buck has been having an affair with Crystal, while also informing Crystal that she knows what's been happening with Buck and that Stephen is unhappy with her. Mary manages to pit Sylvia and Crystal against each other, and makes sure that a gossip columnist hears the whole story of Crystal's affair as the two women argue. Crystal, however, doesn't care about Stephen's lack of affection and tells Mary she can have him back, since she'll now have Buck to support her. The Countess reveals that she has been funding Buck's radio career and that without her he will be penniless and out of a job. This leaves Crystal resigned to the fact that she'll be heading to Reno herself and then back to the perfume counter to support herself, while Mary, completely triumphant, heads out the door to win back Stephen, who is waiting for her there.