Marlon Brando stars as Terry Malloy, a washed up prizefighter who, through the influence of his brother, Charley, a lawyer for a corrupt waterfront union, is employed as an errand boy for the mob. After luring a fellow dockworker and friend to his death to keep him from testifying against labor boss Johnny Friendly, the appeals of the dead man's sister and a crusading priest awaken Terry's guilty conscience of Friendly's goons, love prompts Terry to seek redemption by cooperating with a crime commission's investigation into the corrupt waterfront union.