It's summer 1969 in New York City. Matty Dean arrives on a Greyhound bus. Young, gay and full of dreams, Matty heads downtown. It's the time of the Vietnam War and the Apollo Moon Walk; homosexuality is still illegal. It's the summer of love--but not if you're gay. When Matty finds the Stonewall Inn, wild haunt of fabulous diva drag queens and hangout of the defiant and outspoken street queen Miranda, he experiences a gay life he never knew before. Witnessing the harrassment and butalitiy inflicted on the queers of the Stonewall Inn by the local cops, Matty soon realizes the impossibility of a "safe" gay life and the limitations of fighting for social acceptance from within the system. On the eve of Judy Garland's death, the Stonewall Inn is raided yet again. Harrassed to their limit, the queens of the bar finally fight force with force, invoking a full fledged riot. Pushed to his own crisis of conscience, Matty kicks off his penny-loafers and joins the fight for his right to love openly.