The action of the play takes place inthe Spring 1944, ina city in the Far West in the library of the old Dowd family mansion and the reception room of Chumley's Rest. Elwood P. Dowd insists on including his friend Harvey in all his sister Veta’s social gatherings. Trouble is, Harvey is an imaginary six-and-a-half-foot-tall rabbit. To avoid future embarrassment for her family—and especially for her daughter, Myrtle Mae—Veta decides to have Elwood committed to a sanitarium. At the sanitarium, a frantic Veta explains to the staff that her years of living with Elwood’s hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also