The film follows the turbulent relationship between Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), following their love affair from their first encounters on the London Punk scene to Spungen's death at her boyfriend's hands in a seedy New York hotel. Director Alex Cox eschews moral judgement in favour of an attempt to show how their attachment to each other was motivated by universal human needs, fashioning a classic romantic love story out of unpromising material. Courtney Love makes a brief appearance.