New York friends Bill Gambini and Stan Rothenstein, driving the scenic route to Southern California where they will be attending college, are in rural Alabama when they are pulled over by the police. Thinking they will be charged with shoplifting as Bill had just discovered that he inadvertently left the Sack-O-Suds convenience store without paying for a can of tuna, and confessing to "the crime" when questioned by Sheriff Farley, they find that they are instead charged, in their "confession", of murder and accessory to murder of the store clerk with witnesses claiming to have seen two young men driving away from the store following gunshots, they and their vehicle fitting the description given by the witnesses. With Bill's mother back in New York the only person they know to call, and unable to afford a high-priced lawyer as poor college students, they are advised to have Bill's cousin, Vinny Gambini, represent them. A stereotypical brash Italian Brooklynite, middle-aged Vinny only recently passed the bar and is a proverbial ambulance chaser with no trial experience. Regardless, Bill has faith in Vinny in the Gambinis being experts in arguing. Vinny is even more of a fish out of water than Bill or Stan, as that status is both in locale with the New York gang viewing the Deep South as backward and corrupt, but also in the courtroom, especially in Vinny's dealings with uncompromising Judge Chamberlain Haller. Still, Vinny knows the importance of what he is tasked to do in Bill and Stan's lives being on the line. Added to the mix is Vinny's equally brash girlfriend, Mona Lisa Vito, who wants to help in any way she can as Vinny has told her they will get married after he wins his first case, but with Vinny always putting her to the side in wanting to prove his mettle as a lawyer on his own.