Plot

A touring small-time rock band called The Group picks up a couple of groupies. One night, the band's drunken, hulking bass player goes nuts and rapes the girls. The band refuses to believe that he's trouble, which leads to more tragedy.

In Los Angeles, newly arrived Midwesterners Dolly Thomas (Diane Lee Hart) and Janyce (Carol Speed) are thrilled to see live rock bands at fashionable nightclubs. After being denied entry to one club, they hitchhike and are picked up by Jacques Le Monde (Carl Craig), a pimp and manager of topless dancers. The streetwise Janyce dismisses Le Monde's offer of employment after which the two girls go to a club to listen to The Group, a rock band consisting of lead singer and guitarist Duke (Kipp Whitman), keyboardist Mike (David Ankrum), drummer Gary (David Buchanan) and bassist Butts (Dennis Burkley). Although they are only a local band, The Group has a following of devoted groupies, including rich girl Barbara (Connie Strickland), who is in love with Gary.

After the show, Gary and Barbara secretly make love in the group's van, which is owned by Butts, while Duke is confronted by their manager, Morrie (Leslie McRay). The no-nonsense Morrie advises Duke to fire Butts, a crude, drunken thug whom even the groupies despise, but Duke maintains that Butts is a good musician. Morrie then insists that the band must tour to raise its profile, even though Duke protests that being on the road is a real drag. Duke breaks the news to his band mates, and as the other men are complaining, they are approached by the amorous Janyce and Dolly. Duke shoos away the women, although Mike asks them to return the following evening, and Barbara drives them to their cheap motel.

The next morning, a bored Barbara is at home in a luxurious mansion in Beverly Hills when she telephones Janyce and Dolly, who inform her that they are auditioning for a dancing job with Le Monde. The intrigued Barbara accompanies the girls to a topless club, where Le Monde challenges Barbara to dance by giving her a $10 bill. Barbara strips to her underwear, pleasing the leering crowd, then stuffs the bill into Le Monde's mouth as a rebuke for his chauvinism.

That night, after The Group's show, the girls relax with them at Duke's apartment. Drunk and stoned, Butts is jealous of Janyce's involvement with Mike and Dolly's interest in Duke. Calling the girls "dirty pigs", Butts forces Dolly and Barbara into the bathroom, where he orders them to disrobe and wash. Gary attempts to stop him, but is also reluctant to reveal the extent of his feelings for Barbara when Butts insists that the girls are just groupies and must do as they are told. When Gary reluctantly assents to Butts's cruelty, Barbara angrily strips off her clothes, as does Dolly, and the women enter the shower, with Butts blasting them with cold water and throwing soap at them. After Gary storms out in disgust and the girls begin crying, Butts collapses on the toilet, ashamed of his actions but also stimulated. As Barbara returns upstairs to confront a repentant Gary, Butts visits his mother (Mary Kate Monahan), a masseuse who indulges his fetishes by massaging his back and harshly spanking him.

Back at the apartment, Dolly wakes up Duke, who at first rejects her sexual advances but then responds after deciding that she is genuinely interested in him.

In the morning, Butts is delighted to learn that Duke has succumbed to Dolly's charms, as usually Duke reprimands the others for indulging in groupie action. Duke warns Dolly that he is not interested in anything heavy, especially after the disappointment of his failed marriage, and she maintains her playful attitude. The women bid farewell to the men, who drive to their engagement in Bakersfield.

Soon after, while Barbara is quarreling with her disapproving mother (Ernie Dominy), Dolly and Janyce receive a dinner invitation from would-be actor Floyd J. Harley (Cecil Reddick) and his lecherous agent, Sid Rosen (Jay Adler). Needing money, Janyce and Dolly accept Sid's offer to pose nude for amateur photographers. When Dolly is disappointed by the low pay and asserts that they should just turn a trick now and then, Janyce chastises her friend for her naivete and states that because of deranged men like Butts, it is dangerous to turn to prostitution.

Meanwhile, in Bakersfield, Butts is angered when several groupies reject him and he rapes a woman who had attempted to entice Duke.

In the morning, the irate club owner tells Duke that he is ending The Groups engagement because of Butts's actions. Duke calls Morrie to demand that she get them a job in Las Vegas, then telephones Dolly, asking her and the other girls to meet them for an overnight camping trip.

The women drive to the mountains between Bakersfield and Las Vegas, and the three couples spend an idyllic afternoon and night while Butts once again sulks about being alone.

In the morning, Gary and Barbara wake the others with the news that they have decided to drive ahead to Las Vegas to get married. After they depart, Dolly grabs her purse and runs after them to give them a borrowed ring and a blue handkerchief, and once she is alone, she is attacked by Butts. As he attempts to rape her, Butts is overcome by memories of his mother, but when Dolly tries to comfort him, Butts loses control and strangles her to death. After hiding her body in the brush, Butts staggers back to camp, where Duke is worried about Dolly's disappearance, although Janyce assures him that because she ran off with her purse, she must have left with Gary and Barbara. Butts assures the suspicious Duke that he knows nothing about Dolly's disappearance, and the campers depart.

As they drive down the road, however, a police cruiser begins to chase the van and when Butts finally pulls over, he is arrested for the rape of the woman in Bakersfield. At the police station, Duke calls Morrie, who, despite her hatred of Butts, follows Duke's orders to arrange his bail.

In the woods, a troop of hiking Girl Scouts uncover Dolly's dead body and an ambulance takes her corpse to the police station, just as the band members are leaving. Janyce is grief-stricken upon seeing Dolly's beaten body, and Duke, realizing that Butts is responsible, attacks him. After a fierce fight, Butts grabs a shotgun from a parked police car and shoots Duke in the head, killing him. Overcome with remorse, Butts stands crying as Janyce gently asks him for the gun, but after he gives her the weapon, Janyce shoots him in the stomach. As he dies, Butts asks her "why", and a tearful Janyce replies, "Because were losers, man. We're losers."