Act I Scene I
Inside the Dowd mansion
Veta Louise Simmons and her daughter Myrtle Mae Simmons are hosting a gathering where a woman is singing a dreadful song in the background. The reason they are hosting the luncheon is because Elwood is out for the afternoon and can't show up to ruin their party by introducing his imaginary friend/bunny rabbit, Harvey. After they rejoin the party, we see Elwood enter the house with what seems to be an imaginary friend. Elwood retreats to his room and Veta returns with a guest who is looking for Elwood. Elwood reenters and introduces Harvey to the guest who immediately freaks out and runs away.
Act I Scene II
Inside Chumley's Rest
Veta is sitting at the desk with Nurse Kelly telling the nurse about Elwood's condition (Harvey sightings). Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Chumley's younger assistant, comes out to talk to Veta as well. Sanderson concludes that Veta is the crazy person and sends Wilson to catch her and admit her instead of Elwood. Elwood then has a conversation with Dr. Chumley and ends up making evening plans with him. In the meantime, Harvey ends up wondering off, and Elwood is on a journey to go and find him.
Act II Scene I
Directly afterwards in Dowd
Masion, Myrtle Mae is showing the house off to some tenants. Judge Gaffney shows up saying he received a panic call from Veta, and he was just coming to see what was happening. Veta then arrives and explains of the torment they put her through at Chumley's Rest and that they admitted HER instead of Elwood! They want to admit Elwood so Veta can own the estate. They leave and Elwood shows up with a painting of him and Harvey and makes a phone call to Dr. Chumley's wife looking for Harvey.
Act II Scene II
During the Evening, Chumleys Rest
Elwood is back at the sanitarium after his evening out with Chumley and Harvey. Elwood explains to Wilson, Sanderson, and Nurse Kelly what happened in the course of the evening, and says that Chumley and Harvey got into an actual debate. Also, he tells the story of how he and Harvey met. During this conversation, Dr. Sanderson decides to admit Elwood into the sanitarium. Chumley then comes out from his hiding place and does not want to say who he's hiding from. Chumley retreats to his office, but as the lights are dimming, we see Harvey walk into Chumley's office.
Act III
Chumley comes screaming out of his office just as the judge, Myrtle Mae, and Veta come back into the clinic. Everyone at this point is seeing Harvey, and Veta tells the doctors to give him the formula 997 to make Harvey just disappear forever. Elwood decides to go take it because it's what Veta wants. The cab driver that brought Veta there comes barging in, stating that he wasn't paid for his trip. After he calms down a little bit he explains that he drives people like Elwood to and from the clinic when they are given the formula 997. He says that people are never as pleasant as they used to be after it. This makes Veta stop the procedure and Elwood, Veta, and Harvey, whom Elwood has finally located, leave as one big happy family.
The story is about an affable man Elwood P. Dowd and his imaginary friend Harvey, a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall rabbit. When Elwood starts to introduce Harvey, a pooka, to guests at a society party, his society-obsessed sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter Myrtle Mae and their family from future embarrassment.
When they arrive at the sanitarium, due to a comedy of errors, the doctors commit Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey, it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusions has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors, including renowned Dr. Chumley, his medical partner Dr. Sanderson, and the head nurse Miss Kelly.
Only just before Elwood is to be given an injection, Dr. Chumley's Formula 977, that will make him, as his taxi driver says, into a "perfectly normal human being; and you know what bastards they are!" does Veta realize that she'd rather have Elwood be the same as he's always been — carefree and kind — even if it means living with Harvey the pooka.
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