Against the backdrop of rock and roll, young rebellion, and the racial tension of post-World War II America, Romeo and Juliet find themselves caught in the crossfire of a generations-old conflict and their desperate love for each other.

This film follows Shakespeare's original characters, as passionate and vibrant as ever, but re-imagined in a mid 20th-century setting. The perfect smiles of the Capulet family mask a dissolving marriage, violent husband, and substance-abusing housewife. The Montagues, in turn, struggle with the tension of being an interracial family in a nation full of prejudice and segregation. The preppy, Buddy Holly-esque Capulet youth face off with the slick, James Dean-like greaser Montagues in a simmering battle of gang warfare. Romeo, sensitive and a dreamer, is swept up in his passion for the lovely, privileged Juliet, whose innocent heart is exposed to a vicious world of violence and betrayal. Faced with the cruelty of segregation and generations of habitual hatred, the young couple stand torn between loyalty to their families and to their hearts.