Desperate to escape the bleak future that society has decreed for him, Steve Jones convinces Malcolm McLaren to manage his band, The Swankers; but Steve discovers that his Cloak of Invisibility cannot shield him from the audience's gaze.

As Steve grasps his final chance and attempts to learn guitar in five days, a fury named Johnny Rotten arrives on the scene and the Sex Pistols are born.

As Steve and Chrissie Hynde begin to make more than just music, the Pistols begin to wreak anarchy in the U.K. and Johnny Rotten takes deeper inspiration from a grieving young woman.

The idyllic moment where success is not yet fame, is soon obliterated when the band shock the nation out of its tea-time torpor. The resulting media frenzy causes egos to explode. Steve is emotionally blackmailed by Malcom into replacing bassist Glen Matlock with glorious looking, but musically inept, Sid Vicious.

As Nancy and Sid's love ignites, Sid becomes increasingly lost to heroin and violence; a plan is hatched to get rid of Nancy, but on a riverboat stunt during the Queen's Jubilee to promote "God Save the Queen," chaos takes hold.

Malcolm tries to ruin the Pistols by touring in the South, where they're reviled; Sid becomes lead singer; Steve desperately tries to hold the band together, but Nancy is found murdered in a New York City hotel room, and Sid is the main suspect.