Five Socs surround and attack Ponyboy on his walk home from the movie theater, threatening to cut his hair.

Ponyboy and Johnny sneak into the Nightly Double drive-in with Dally, where they meet two Soc girls named Cherry and Marcia.

Johnny stands up to Dally's harassment of Cherry, earning the girls' gratitude and an invitation to sit with them.

A Mustang full of Socs returns to the drive-in, and Cherry leaves with her boyfriend Bob to prevent a fight.

Darry slaps Ponyboy after he arrives home very late, and Ponyboy flees to find Johnny in the street.

Drunk Socs ambush Johnny and Ponyboy in the park, and one Soc holds Ponyboy's head underwater in a fountain.

Johnny stabs Bob with his switchblade to save Ponyboy, killing him, while the remaining Socs flee the park.

Dally gives the boys money, a gun, and directions to hide in an abandoned church in Windrixville.

The abandoned church catches fire with children trapped inside, and Ponyboy and Johnny rush in without hesitation to save them.

The church roof collapses on Johnny during the rescue, and Dally knocks Ponyboy unconscious to extinguish flames on his back.

The greasers defeat the Socs at the rumble, and Dally immediately drives Ponyboy to see Johnny at the hospital.

Johnny tells Ponyboy and Dally that fighting is useless with his final breaths, then dies in the hospital.

Dally pulls his unloaded gun on pursuing police officers in the vacant lot and is deliberately shot dead.

Cherry and Randy testify on Ponyboy's behalf at the murder hearing, and Ponyboy is acquitted and kept with his brothers.

Ponyboy decides to write his English essay about his recent experiences, and the first lines he writes open the novel.

The story opens with Ponyboy being attacked by Socs before a chance meeting with Cherry at the drive-in creates a real connection across class lines. That same night, drunk Socs ambush Johnny and Ponyboy in the park, forcing Johnny to stab their leader Bob in self-defense to save Ponyboy's life. The boys hide in a Windrixville church before returning to find it ablaze, heroically saving trapped children at great personal cost. While the greasers win the climactic rumble, the victory is hollow — Johnny dies shortly after, and a grief-shattered Dally deliberately provokes police into shooting him. After the murder hearing clears Ponyboy and keeps the brothers together, he channels his grief into an essay that becomes the novel itself, completing the story's circular frame.

The key events that drive the main story forward.

The rest of the greaser gang arrives to chase off the attacking Socs and rescue Ponyboy from the mugging.

Two-Bit sneaks up on the drive-in group pretending to be a threatening Soc, genuinely terrifying Johnny.

Ponyboy and Johnny go to the vacant lot after the movies to stargaze and talk about escaping to a life without gangs.

Johnny and Ponyboy cut their hair and bleach Ponyboy's as a disguise while hiding in the Windrixville church.

Dally arrives at the church on the fifth day and takes the boys to a Dairy Queen to eat.

Dally reveals over food that Cherry is spying for the greasers and that a major rumble is planned for that night.

A doctor tells the Curtis family that Johnny has a broken back and will be crippled for the rest of his life.

A morning newspaper runs a front-page story celebrating Ponyboy and Johnny as unlikely heroes for saving the children.

Randy privately tells Ponyboy he will skip the rumble because the fighting never truly solves anything for either side.

Ponyboy and Two-Bit visit Johnny in the hospital, and Johnny refuses to see his mother when she arrives.

Ponyboy and Two-Bit visit Dally in the hospital, and Dally takes Two-Bit's prized switchblade before they leave.

Cherry tells Ponyboy at the vacant lot before the rumble that the Socs have agreed to fight without weapons.

Dally arrives unexpectedly at the rumble, and the distraction allows Paul Holden to land the first punch on Darry.

Dally calls the Curtis house after robbing a store, and the entire gang sprints to meet him at the vacant lot.

Soda runs off after Ponyboy and Darry argue; Ponyboy tackles him, and Soda reveals he feels caught in the middle.

The gang's fierce loyalty is established immediately when they chase off the Socs attacking Ponyboy, setting the tone for everything that follows. In the days after Bob's murder, the boys navigate haircuts in hiding, Dally's updates about an escalating gang war, and the shocking revelation that Cherry is spying for the greasers. Hospital visits reveal Johnny's grim prognosis while a newspaper headline and Randy's private confession begin to crack Ponyboy's assumptions about Socs. The rumble itself is dramatically ignited by Dally's unexpected arrival, and the story's tragic final act is set in motion when Dally calls the Curtis house after robbing a store. The novel closes with Sodapop's emotional breakdown over being caught between his brothers, which finally forces Ponyboy and Darry to make a lasting peace.

The supporting scenes that fill out the full story.

Ponyboy reads Great Expectations for English class and connects with Pip's feeling of being looked down on by society.

Ponyboy tells Cherry about Johnny's brutal beating by a Soc wearing rings, and Cherry says things are rough all over.

Cherry observes that Ponyboy watches sunsets, and the two recognize a basic sameness between greasers and Socs.

Cherry shocks Ponyboy by confessing she could fall in love with Dally before leaving with the Socs in the Mustang.

Ponyboy and Johnny board a freight train and escape to Windrixville in the early morning hours after the murder.

Ponyboy and Johnny watch a stunning sunrise together at the church, and Ponyboy recites Robert Frost's poem Nothing Gold Can Stay.

Johnny announces he and Ponyboy plan to turn themselves in to the police; Dally pleads with Johnny not to risk prison.

Ponyboy wakes in an ambulance after the church fire and learns from a teacher that Johnny may have broken his back.

Darry breaks down crying when he sees Ponyboy at the hospital, and Ponyboy finally understands that his brother truly loves him.

Ponyboy tells teacher Jerry Wood the full story of the murder in the hospital waiting room and is not judged.

While speeding to the hospital after the rumble, Dally tells Ponyboy he regrets ever letting Johnny stay soft and caring.

Randy visits the recovering Ponyboy to discuss the hearing, but Ponyboy insists he killed Bob himself and denies Johnny's role.

Socs threaten Ponyboy outside a store; feeling emotionally numb, he scares them off with a broken bottle for the first time.

Ponyboy discovers that Sandy returned Sodapop's letter unopened and realizes he has never once considered his brother's own pain.

Ponyboy opens Gone with the Wind and finds a letter from Johnny urging him to stay gold and believe in good.

The story's emotional core begins quietly, with Ponyboy connecting to Pip in Great Expectations and then sharing an unexpectedly honest conversation with Cherry about sunsets and the sameness between their two worlds. Bob's murder forces Ponyboy into hiding, where a shared sunrise and a Robert Frost poem anchor the novel's central belief that youthful sensitivity is worth protecting. The church fire marks the story's pivot point, as Ponyboy wakes in an ambulance to a changed world and then finally understands Darry's love through tears at a hospital bedside. After the rumble, Dally's bitter advice in the speeding car and Johnny's quiet death expose how little violence has solved, leaving Ponyboy emotionally numb and briefly in denial about his friends' fates. Johnny's letter, discovered late in his recovery, restores Ponyboy's sense of purpose and directly inspires him to give voice to the stories of boys like them.