The film opens with drunk and has-been one time high school football hero, Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman) jumping hurdles around the school track trying to recapture his glory days. He falls and hurts his right leg. A few days later he visits the family cotton farm with his brother, Gooper (Jack Carson). They are celebrating their father's sixty-fifth birthday but family rumor has it that "Big Daddy" (Burl Ives) is dying of colon cancer.m and will therefore need to settle his estate between his sons. Gooper and his objectionable wife, Mae, have knocked themselves out fawning over Big Daddy and staying in his good books so that they inherit his fortune but this behavior actually alienates Big Daddy who favors Brick and his wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor). Maggie is smart and opinionated and does not have much patience with the badly behaved and entitled offspring Mar and Gooper have produced.
Brick spends his time at the plantation recovering from his knee injury and drinking in his room. He and Maggie argue a lot. When Big Daddy and his wife, Ida, arrive home from the hospital they come bearing good news- Big Daddy is not sick after all. He is, however, sick of the sycophantic Mae and chooses to ride home from the airport with Maggie instead. Maggie can't wait to share the news with Brick who is sulking like a child on his room. Ida follows her upstairs and demands to know if Brick has been drinking again. She blames Maggie and their childlessness for this and declares their marriage failed. Dr Baugh intervenes in this family argument, and on the pretext of talking to Brick about his alcohol consumption admits that he lied about Big Daddy's health status. He is in fact dying of terminal cancer but Dr Baugh thinks it is better to protect him from this fact. The doctor also told Gooper, and the brothers decide to keep the news a secret. Brick buckles and tells Maggie.
As the party winds down, Big Daddy grows bored of his guests and goes upstairs to talk to Brick. He brings up the subject of Brick's high school buddy, Skipper, who committed suicide a few years previously. Maggie tells Big Daddy that she hated Brick's pro-football career because he put it ahead of her and she resented Skipper for pulling Brick away from his marriage. Her unspoken suggestion is that Skipper and Brick's relationship was more than just a close friendship. Maggie seriously considered seducing Skipper out of spite but changed her mind, Brick letting on that Skipper had called him in the belief that a drunken seduction had actually taken place. Skipper tearfully tries to apologize but Brick hangs up the phone on him. Soon afterwards, Skipper kills himself and Brick blames Maggie. Brick storms out of the house after angrily revealing to his father that the doctor lied and that he is terminally ill. Big Daddy is shocked and takes refuge in the basement
Meanwhile, Gooper and Mae have been trying to convince Ida to settle Big Daddy's will in their favor. Ida is feeling pressured then Mae lets slip that Dr Baugh lied about Big Daddy's test results. Put on the spot, Dr Baugh is forced to admit the truth and although Ida is momentarily floored she becomes firmly resolved that her husband will not be dying anytime soon . Maggie joins them and is soothing and reassuring, but Gooper and Mae continue to pour on the pressure with regard to the will and the estate. This reveals the rivalry between the two sisters-in-law and the animosity between the two. Maggie shows that she sees Mae as dishonest and gold-digging trailer trash. Mae, pregnant with child number six, doesn't believe that a woman with no kids and a drunk should inherit anything from anyone.
Brick has followed his father to the basement where the doctor is apologizing for his deception and coming clean about Big Daddy's failing health. He gives Big Daddy a syringe and morphine for his pain and then leaves Brick and his father together to re-hash old times. Big Daddy admits that Brock and Maggie are the only family members he really cares about and that making money was the only way he felt he could demonstrate his own success. He recollects his own father who was a tramp with no real direction or job. Brick becomes overcome by emotion and breaks all of the expensive things in the basement that his father had bought and the two men finally see eye to eye and have renewed respect for each other as they are more alike than different.
Upstairs, Ida and the others are still heatedly bickering over the will. Brick overhears his brother and sister-in-law mocking him for his drinking and calmly intervenes. Big Daddy, determined to be optimistic and see things in a new way, addressed Ida with a new affection and respect. Maggie shocks the family by announcing that she is finally pregnant. Mae calls her a liar but Brick takes her upstairs and leaves his parents to celebrate. Maggie thanks him for going along with the lie; she couldn't stand Mae's attitude any longer and wants to give her in-laws a reason to hope for the future. Brick tells her they are "through with lies and liars in this house," but he has fallen back in love with Maggie and at last their romance is rekindled.
