Paula Parkins, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do newspaper editor father and a socialite mother, gets her kicks by organizing and directing a gang of bored young women like herself. The gang dresses in men's attire, robs gas stations, and terrorizes habituÃ©s of a local lovers' laneâeven raping a young gentleman (off camera) after tying up his girlfriend.
As a newspaperman, Paula's father has some inside information on police plans to capture the gang, so the girls are able to avoid capture with Mr. Parkins' unwitting complicity. After a make-out party with a few local gangsters, Paula and her pals agree to wreck a few classrooms â and destroy the American flag â in a public school at the behest of Shelia, a female crime boss. (It is implied that this is part of an anti-American Communist plot.) The girls perform the job with gleeful competence until the police arrive and a deadly shootout takes place, claiming the lives of two of Paula's gang while Paula shoots and kills a policeman. Seeking refuge from the police, the girls return to Shelia's house and demanding their payment for wrecking the school. But Sheila, not wanting to be involved or arrested for their crime, betrays the girls by calling the police until Paula fatally shoots her. While escaping the policemen in a car chase, Paula crashes the car into a store's glass window; injuring her but killing her last gang member. Paula is captured, convicted, and dies in the hospital giving birth to the child she conceived during the rape. The judge in Paula's case denies her parents custody of their granddaughter, based on the neglectful way they raised Paula.
The cynical tag line "So what?" is used repeatedly by the girls to underscore their uncaring, nihilistic attitude.
Who is in the gang?
Young women