Cody, John Cassavetes leads a motorcycle gang called the Skulls who hear the tale of Hole-in-the-Wall, a secret refuge where there are no police. The legend plants a dangerous dream in their minds: to disappear forever in a place where law and order don’t intrude. Inspired, Cody declares to the gang that they’re heading to Hole-in-the-Wall to live outside the rules of ordinary society. Thus, they break their pal Funky, Buck Kartalian, out of jail and head out, eager for a mythical utopia and the thrill of rebellion on the open highway.
On the road, the Skulls unleash their chaotic momentum. They terrorize a gas-station store owner and help themselves to his beer, displaying a reckless disregard for ordinary consequences. The spree escalates when they smash the RV of a couple who accidentally topple one of their motorcycles, setting a tone of merciless vandalism and street justice that follows them wherever they go. After a burst of aimless roaming, the gang rolls into the small town of Brookville in time for the annual picnic, drawing immediate attention from a community already wary of these outsiders.
The mayor and the townspeople press their complaints, and Sheriff Henderson, Leo Gordon, tries to mediate a tense standoff. The sheriff is notably more conciliatory than most would expect, and he reaches a temporary arrangement with Cody: the Skulls can camp on the beach for a night, provided they move on the next morning. This uneasy truce filters into the town’s mood, as some residents view the sheriff as too soft on the intruders, while others hope for a peaceful night.
A local girl, fascinated by the gang, joins them for the ride to the beach, adding a human thread to the escalating tension. The mayor and others interpret the situation as the sheriff’s soft handling of the bikers, arguing that he should force them out rather than accommodate their presence. At the beach, the mood turns darker as some gang members drug and manhandle the local girl, and she runs away in fear. The mayor seizes on this incident to falsely claim that she was raped, feeding a vicious narrative that further polarizes the town.
The sheriff reverses course and arrests Cody, ordering the rest of the bikers to leave the beach. Yet this is not the end of the trouble. To exact revenge on Brookville, the Skulls arrange for assistance from another motorcycle gang, stepping up the level of violence and intimidation that dominates the town’s life. The sheriff soon realizes the mayor’s accusation was a lie and frees Cody, allowing the gang’s return to the town with a renewed sense of purpose.
Back with his troops, Cody argues that they should press on to Hole-in-the-Wall, but the rest of the Skulls, driven by a desire for retribution and spectacle, outvote him. The gang returns to Brookville and stages a brutal mock trial that targets not only the girl and her family but also the mayor and Sheriff Henderson. The mayor is found guilty and beaten, while the girl is condemned to be gang-raped, a sentence that unfolds with a chilling sense of inevitability as Cody struggles to intervene but cannot halt the proceedings.
As new riders from the other gang arrive, Brookville descends further into anarchy and mayhem. Cody, increasingly disillusioned, wants out of the cycle of violence, but the town’s violence presses inward. He asks a fellow gang member where Hole-in-the-Wall is supposed to be, only to be told there is no such place—it's a lie. He turns to his girlfriend and pleads for her to leave with him, but she refuses to abandon the group. Amid fires and destruction, Cody tears off his Skulls jacket and casts it aside, choosing to walk away from the life he helped to create. He rides off into the night as police cars converge on Brookville to restore order, leaving the Skulls to their ruin and exposing the hollowness of the legend that inspired them.
