From his first gig as a nervous Catskills comedian, it's obvious that Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) is a force to be reckoned with. Armed with a shocking routine and a stripper as his muse (Valerie Perrine), Lenny turns comedy, and America, on its ear with his abrasive and often offensive humour. But life in the smoke-filled bars of the comedy curcuit begins to take its toll. The drugs and arrests for his subject matter wear heavily on this maverick crusader but don't stop him from going to extremes right to his tragic and myth-making end...