A small-town soldier, Joe Allen (Robert Walker), on a 48-hour leave, meets Alice Mayberry (Judy Garland) in crowded Pennsylvania Station when she trips over his foot and breaks the heel off one of her shoes.

He accompanies her on her way home atop a double-decker bus, and she points out landmarks along the way, including the Central Park Zoo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both of which they visit.

However, when he persists, and chases the bus she is riding down the street, she relents, promising to meet him under the clock at the Astor Hotel at 7:00 that evening.

Having missed the last bus home, they accept a ride with a milk man named Al Henry (James Gleason).

A drunk strikes Al, blackening his eye, and after the company's road repairman has changed the truck's tire, Alice and Joe spend the night delivering milk to their benefactor's customers.

Alice sees Joe off at Penn Station, as his leave ends and he returns to war, and she heads back out, into the crowded city.

Garland had asked MGM to star in a straight dramatic role, wanting a break from the strenuous schedules of musical films.

Although the studio was hesitant, the producer, Arthur Freed, eventually approached Garland with the script for The Clock after buying the rights to the short unpublished story by Pauline and Paul Gallico.

During filming, Garland would often find him drunk in a Los Angeles bar and then sober him up throughout the night so he could appear before cameras the next day.

In Studio 27, Minnelli had a reconstructed set of the Waiting Room at Penn Station built at a reported cost of $66,450.

Another clock is depicted hanging there, closely resembling the one prominently displayed in Grand Central Terminal.

The atmosphere of the big town has seldom been conveyed more realistically upon the screen [-] the kind of picture that leaves one with a warm feeling toward his fellow man, especially towards the young folks who today are trying to crowd a lifetime of happiness into a few fleeting hours."