Genç ve öfkeli bir Marlon Brando, 50'lerin bu kült klasiğinde beyaz perdeyi fethediyor. Brando'nun canlandırdığı Johnny, küçük, uyuşuk bir California kasabasını ele geçiren motosikletli çetenin lideridir. Deri ceketli genç motorcu, kasabanın en güzel kızı Kathie'ye âşık olana kadar sadece yıkımla ilgileniyor gibidir. Ancak Johnny'nin şanssızlığı, psikopat rakibi Chino tarafından tehdit edilmesi ve bunun üstüne, kasaba halkının düşmanlığı ve önyargılarıdır.
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.