Америка в тяжелые годы Великой депрессии. Повсюду безработица и бедность. Люди берутся за любую работу, чтобы заработать на кусок хлеба и крышу над головой. Поэтому не удивительно, что танцевальный марафон с призом в 1500 долларов легко собрал в мрачном ангаре на побережье несколько десятков участников со всей страны. Все они такие разные, но каждый готов на все ради выигрыша...

Gloria (Jane Fonda) is a young woman of the Depression. She has aged beyond her years and feels her life is hopeless, having been cheated and betrayed many times in her past. Fantasizing about movies, she sees herself as an actress and decides to head for Hollywood, having got the idea from a movie magazine while recuperating in the hospital from a suicide attempt which resulted from another unhappy love affair. Robert (Michael Sarrazin), a desperate Hollywood citizen unsuccessfully trying to become a director, never doubting that he'll eventually make it. Robert and Gloria meet and decide to enter a dance marathon, one of the crazes of the thirties. The grueling dancing takes its toll on Gloria's already weakened spirit, and she tells Robert that she'd be better off dead, that her life is hopeless - all the while acting cruel and bitter, alienating those around her, trying to convince him to shoot her and put her out of her misery. After all, they shoot horses, don't they?