Desperate to escape the bleak future that society has decreed for him, charismatic Steve Jones convinces Malcolm McLaren to manage his band.

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 shocks the nation out of its tea-time torpor. The resulting media frenzy causes egos to explode.

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 chaos takes hold.

Malcolm decides the Sex Pistols have become too much like a rock band; famous, inaccessible - so he must blow them up. Johnny leaves the band, and a heroin-ridden Sid becomes lead singer.