21-year-old Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) has come to the Big Apple in order to pursue her dream of becoming a successful songwriter. But it is not her songwriting that is getting her noticed. Violet has taken up a part time job as a barmaid at New York's hottest new club, the Coyote Ugly, where the girls spend more time dancing outrageously on the bar than actually serving drinks behind it.