Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) and her husband Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman) visit his parent's home during a time of difficulty in their marriage. It is the sixty-fifth birthday of Harvey "Big Daddy" Pollitt, a wealthy plantation owner in Mississippi who has been in the hospital for tests. Believing he is about to die, his other son and family also come for the birthday party, thinking they will be able to win "Big Daddy" over and inherit all his wealth. But Brick is his father's favorite except for the fact that he has yet to have any children. Maggie begs to have Brick's affection, but he prefers to waste his life with alcohol. This worries Maggie who is afraid Brick will be cut out of the will. But over the course of the visit, Brick and his father hash through the stumbling blocks of their relationship even as he, literally, breaks his ankle trying to recall the former days when he was his father's favored son.