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The film is about 19-year-old Tony Manero (John Travolta), a young man who works a dead-end job in a small hardware store by day, but rules the dance floor at night with his frequent appearances at 2001 Odyssey, a Brooklyn dance club.

While at 2001 Odyssey, Tony is seen in the company of his three close friends, Joey (Joseph Cali); Double J (Paul Pape); and the meek Bobby C. (Barry Miller), still in high school. It's presumed Bobby C., though younger, is part of the gang because he is the only one with a car (a run-down Chevrolet Impala). An informal member of their gang is Annette (Donna Pescow), a plain-looking girl who has more than friendship on her mind when it comes to Tony.

Tony, knowing Annette has the right moves to win an upcoming dance competition, recruits her to participate with him in the contest, much to her delight. Her happiness is short-lived, however, when Tony abruptly terminates their partnership after seeing Stephanie Mangano at the dance club. Stephanie is an attractive, talented dancer with what Tony assumes is a more committed attitude.

Despite her initial frosty and superior attitude toward Tony, after much urging, Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) agrees to partner with him in the contest. Stephanie works in Manhattan as a secretary for a magazine; she is poised to move there and has more opportunities to work her way up. This awakens in Tony the need to transcend his working-class roots of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. However, Stephanie ultimately reveals her own vulnerabilities to Tony.

Also examined in the film is Tony's relationship with his family, including Frank Jr., Tony's older brother and clearly his parents' favorite, who abandons a planned career in the priesthood. Tony's mother dotes on Frank Jr., who shatters his parents' dreams of what he refers to as "pious glory." This may be partly because Frank Jr. no longer wishes to spend his life in celibacy, but mainly, as he tries to explain to Tony, because he has doubts about his faith and is disillusioned with the Church.

Bobby C., who looks up to Tony because of his dance talent, asks him for advice for getting out of his relationship with his devoutly-Catholic girlfriend Pauline, who is pregnant with his child. Though Tony tells him to dump her, Bobby C. faces pressure from his family and others to marry her, which he clearly doesn't wish to do. After she refuses to get an abortion, Bobby asks Frank Jr. if Pope Paul VI would grant him dispensation for an abortion. Bobby's feelings of despair deepen when Frank tells him dispensation would be highly unlikely.

Double-J and Joey are Tony's more like-minded friends, macho, foul-mouthed, bigoted, chauvinistic, and with hair-trigger tempers. They engage in wild behavior such as balancing themselves along the dangerous railing of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, often while in varying states of drunkenness. Another member of the gang is beaten up by some Puerto Rican youths and is put in a hospital. Tony, Double-J and Joey vow revenge and storm a Puerto Rican bar only finding out later that it is the wrong place.

Finally, it's the evening of the dance competition at 2001 Odyssey. Tony and Stephanie finish their dance to wild applause. The last couple to compete, however, is a Puerto Rican duo whom Tony realizes has blown him and Stephanie away after seeing their spectacular performance. Nevertheless, Tony and Stephanie take the top prize, which Tony immediately dismisses, claiming the contest was rigged in his favor (because of his popularity at 2001). He grabs the trophy and prize money from Stephanie and presents them to the Puerto Rican couple (who took second) instead, telling them they deserve it.

Angry, Tony tells off his friends as phonies who won't be honest with him, dragging Stephanie with him. He attempts to force himself on Stephanie in the car until she fights him off and escapes. He then sullenly takes off with the gang, along with a drunk and high Annette, whom Joey says is going to "give everybody a piece." Double-J and Joey both take turns with Annette, but Annette starts to cry after she realizes she actually does not want to have sex with them.

They pull the car off the bridge, but this time, Bobby C., who normally stays in the car, joins them, and is attempting more dangerous stunts than Tony, Double-J, and Joey. Realizing that Bobby is acting recklessly, Tony tries to coax him off the railing. Upset at his lonely life, his situation with Pauline, and a broken promise from Tony earlier that he would call him, the needy Bobby rants at Tony's lack of care, and accidentally slips, falling to his death. The friends are shocked and grief-stricken. When a policeman called to investigate the incident asks Tony if he thinks Bobby C. committed suicide, Tony responds, "There are ways of killin' yourself without killin' yourself".

A distraught Tony spends the rest of the night riding the subway. He finally shows up at Stephanie's apartment, apologizing and saying that he wanted to try and salvage their relationship by being friends first... and see what develops from there. Recognizing Tony's honest wish to change, Stephanie takes his hand in hers, and then him into her arms in this final scene.