The passengers on a New York subway car are terrorized by two teenage delinquents. Although outnumbered, the teenagers take advantage of the passenger's passivity and unwillingness to act together. We watch how the different personalities of the passengers react to the situation.

During a Sunday night of drinking, two young hoodlums, Joe Ferrone and Artie Connors, mug and rob an old man in an alley and then set out in search of further kicks by boarding a Manhattan-bound subway train. During the trip that follows, the two punks trap 16 passengers in the car and, one by one, proceed to bait, taunt, and terrorize them. The victimes are: Pfc Felix Teflinger, a southern soldier with a broken arm who is on leave in New York; his Army buddy, Phil Carmatti, a local Italian- American boy; high school teacher Bill Wilks and his wife, Helen, and their little daughter, returning home after visiting relatives; Tony Goya, a sexually aggressive young man, and his timorous date, Alice Keenan; Sam and Bertha Beckerman, an elderly Jewish couple concerned about their married son's selfishness; Harry and Muriel Purvis, a sexually unhappy married couple who have just been to a party; Douglas an on-the-mend alcoholic Kenneth Otis, Otis a shy homosexual attracted to McCann; Arnold Robinson, a bitterly antiwhite Negro, and his peace-loving wife, Joan; and a derelict sprawled in a drunken stupor across one of the seats. Throughout the seemingly interminable ride, not one of the passengers rises to help his beleaguered fellow riders; each individual wants only to be left alone. Eventually, however, young Teflinger can stand it no longer, and he defiantly stands up to face the two thugs. Although his arm is in a plaster cast, he turns his handicap into an advantage by using the cast to beat his two adversaries to the floor. In spite of the fact that Ferrone stabs him in the stomach, Teflinger continues to pound the young hood into senselessness until the train pulls into Grand Central Station. As the police rush aboard and drag off the two hoodlums, Carmatti helps his wounded buddy out onto the platform. And the other passengers, in an almost ashamed silence, carefully step over the drunk, now on the floor, who has slept through the whole ordeal.