Times are hard, money in short supply and jobs hard to come by in Italy in the years immediately after World War II. Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) struggles to feed himself, his wife (Lianella Carell) and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola), and leaves home every day looking for work. One day Antonio is lucky, finding a job putting up posters. But to do the job he needs his own bicycle, to enable him to travel around Rome putting the posters up in different locations. He had a bike already, but pawned it because he needed the money, so his wife encourages him to sell the family linen to raise the money to redeem it. With his bicycle reclaimed, Antonio is able to start work in his new job. But disaster strikes when the bicycle is stolen in a distraction robbery, and although Antonio gives chase to the thieves, he loses them in the crowded streets. He then conducts an increasingly desperate search around the city, together with his son Bruno, in the hope of finding the bike. Without