Texas, shortly after the Civil War. Henry Moon is an outlaw, on the run from the law. He is captured trying to escape to Mexico and taken back to town to be hanged. The town has a special law that a condemned man can walk free if one of the single women of the town offer to marry him. Henry is in luck - at the last moment Julia Tate offers to marry him, and pretty soon they are married. However, Henry soon discovers that Julia's motives are purely business-orientated - she needs someone to work the mine on her property. This makes for a very cold marriage.
Jim（詹姆斯·迪恩 James Dean 飾）因?yàn)樵趯W(xué)校里無(wú)與其他同學(xué)共融迫使他的父母只多次搬家，這一他們來(lái)到了洛杉。在洛杉磯的一高中里，他仍舊到了同學(xué)的排斥但認(rèn)識(shí)了他心愛(ài)女生Judy（娜塔利·伍德 Natalie Wood 飾）；交到了他真正的夷山友Plato（薩爾·米涅奧 Sal Mineo 飾）。在Jim和當(dāng)?shù)匦』旎祛^目、也Judy的前男友Frank一系列的糾紛中，兩人終決定以賽車(chē)來(lái)勝負(fù)。而在比賽，F(xiàn)rank不幸墜入懸崖身亡。Frank的兄弟們?cè)噲D找Jim報(bào)仇，在兩方的對(duì)抗，Plato被警察意外槍殺，使部影片留下了一悲劇性的結(jié)尾。Jim和Judy的命運(yùn)又將何去從?
