Suffering from insomnia, ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle works the nightshift, driving his yellow cab in New York City. Disillusioned and frustrated about the state the city is in he wishes for a "real rain" to wash the "scum" off the neon-lit streets. Chronically alone, Travis cannot connect with anyone, not even with such other cabbies as blowhard Wizard. He becomes infatuated with vapid blonde presidential campaign worker Betsy, who agrees to a date and then spurns Travis when he cluelessly takes her to a porno movie. After an encounter with a malevolent fare, the increasingly paranoid Travis begins to condition (and arm) himself for his imagined destiny, a mission that mutates from assassinating Betsy's candidate Charles Palatine to violently "saving" teen hooker Iris from her pimp Sport. Travis's bloodbath turns him into a media hero.