August 1973, Texas: a cemetery has been violated Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her wheelchair-bound brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain) are concerned that their grandfather’s grave has also been vandalized. So they travel to Texas with Sally’s boyfriend Jerry (Allen Danziger), her best friend Pam (Teri McMinn) and her boyfriend Kirk (William Vail). When they discover that the resting place is intact, they continue on to the old abandoned farm of the Hardesty family. On the way, they pick up a somewhat oddball hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), but the group puts him back on the road due to his strange behavior. A little later, the friends reach a gas station. There they don’t get any gasoline, but an old man (Jim Siedow) has an important advice: they should turn back! But the young people ignore the warning. Finally Kirk and Pam discover a house and want to ask the inhabitants for gasoline. Little do they suspect that horror incarnate lives there: a degenerate clan that decorates its home with human and animal remains. One family member, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), wears a mask and chainsaw….