Yikes, but there's a lot of smouldering going on here... "Brick" (Paul Newman) is the former all-American boy type who has got himself injured and is married to "Maggie" (Elizabeth Taylor) with whom he has a pretty turbulent relationship based on mistrust. He is the son of the wealthy and tyrannical "Big Daddy" (Burl Ives) who is in turn married to the rather sheepish "Ida" (Judith Anderson) and the brother to the ostensibly insipid lawyer "Gooper" (Jack Carson) who is married to the rather selfish "Mae" (Madeleine Sherwood). So far, nobody much likes or trusts anyone, there's not enough love ...