[1] Inspired by Carson McCullers' novella The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951),[2] the film centers on two women who have recently separated from their husbands, and the blossoming friendship that ensues.

German tourists Jasmin Münchgstettner from Rosenheim and her husband fight while driving across the American southwest desert.

She storms out of the car and makes her way to an isolated truck stop cafe, which is run by the tough-as-nails and short-tempered Brenda, whose own husband, after an argument out front, has also left.

The cafe is visited by an assortment of colorful characters, including a strange ex-Hollywood set-painter and a glamorous tattoo artist.

The script was inspired by a road trip across U.S. Route 66 taken by director Percy Adlon and his wife Eleanor, a producer, in 1984.

The charm of "Bagdad Cafe" is that every character and every moment is unanticipated, obscurely motivated, of uncertain meaning and vibrating with life.

[23] The soundtrack features the songs "Calling You", written by Bob Telson and sung by Jevetta Steele, and "Brenda, Brenda" with lyrics by Lee Breuer and music by Bob Telson, sung by Jevetta's sister Jearlyn Steele, featuring the harmonica of William Galison, and also has a track in which the director narrates the story, including the film's missing scenes.

[24] The principal piano pieces, performed by Darron Flagg, are preludes from Book I of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier: the C major, no.