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Ponyboy Curtis, a member of the greasers, goes to a movie with his friends and then gets into an altercation with the Socs. The Socs are members of another gang who beat up Ponyboy’s friend Johnny. They’re trying to cut off Ponyboy’s hair when Darry shows up and scares them away.

Another night, Johnny and Ponyboy go to the drive-in with Dally. They meet a girl named Cherry Valance who is friends with one of the Socs that attacked Johnny. She tells them that not all Socs are like that. In fact, she says they have problems too. The four of them talk about sunsets together because they love watching them.

The greasers and the Socs walk out of the movie together, but they’re stopped by a group of Socs led by Bob. The greasers almost fight them, but Cherry leaves with Bob instead. Ponyboy talks with Johnny in an empty lot before going home to sleep. He wakes up late and is beaten by his brother Darry for it. Later that night, he goes back out to meet Johnny at the park where they run into Bob again along with some other Socs who attack him putting his head underwater in a fountain and then stab him killing him instantly while Johnny runs away from there as well as Dally helping them escape town

The boys seek refuge in an abandoned church, where they cut their hair and disguise themselves. They read from Gone with the Wind for five days. Dally comes to visit them but is injured when a fire breaks out at the church. The boys save children at the scene of the fire, including Dally, who suffers serious injuries that require hospitalization. Ponyboy acknowledges his brother’s love for him during this time and learns that Johnny will recover but Dally may not survive his injuries.

The next night, Ponyboy and his friends brawl with the Socs. Randy is one of Bob’s best friends, but he decides not to fight because he doesn’t think it will accomplish anything. However, Ponyboy fights anyway and wins the rumble.

Afterwards, Dally and Ponyboy go to visit Johnny in the hospital. He tells them his last words: “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.” They then hear that he died from his injuries. The two of them are devastated but they still have each other’s support for comfort.

Ponyboy is sicker than ever after the rumble so he spends days unconscious and delirious while Dally robs a grocery store with an unloaded gun. In a confrontation with police officers, one of them shoots him dead on sight because they think it was an attempted robbery gone bad or something similar to that situation (I’m not sure what happens).

Ponyboy recovers from his beating by the Socs. Johnny is proven to have acted in self-defense, and he’s acquitted of all charges. Ponyboy is upset about this, though, because he feels that it was partly his fault for starting the fight. His grades suffer as a result of his stress over schoolwork and life at home. He almost succumbs to violence when Darry tries to get him to stop fighting with other greasers; they end up getting into a physical altercation instead. Ponyboy’s English teacher offers him an opportunity: if he writes an essay on any topic, she’ll give him credit for passing her class even if he fails all the tests and quizzes throughout the year (she knows that Ponyboy has been suffering lately). The brothers argue again after Darry tells Soda not to hang out with Pony so much anymore because it will hurt Soda’s reputation among the Socs if they see them together too often—Soda doesn’t like being told what to do by anyone but especially not by his older brother. But then they make amends before things get worse between them than they already are due to their fights about schoolwork and gang activities.