So, here's the story.

Nino, the bad-ass gangster guy who buys the Driver and Shannon his race-car, finds out that rival mafia gangsters in the area are moving a lot of money in to a local pawn shop in preparation for a new business venture they're setting up.

The Driver gets mixed up in this through Standard - the hot neighbors husband who gets out of prison. While he was in prison, he ended up owing protection money to Nino's guys. By the time he's got out, he owes a lot more money and every time he can't pay it back, it goes up and up - to the point where Standard gets attacked by two dudes in a car park near his house.

So the Driver speaks to Standard, who tells him that Nino's guys want him to do a criminal job - but he doesn't want to risk going back to prison. However, he owes them so much money now that his self and family are in danger if he doesn't do what they ask.

The Driver agrees to be his getaway driver for the job, to help him get his life back on track. One last job, pay the debt back - move on.

However, the job turns out to be a set-up orchestrated by Nino. The Driver was never supposed to be involved, just Standard. He was to go down, get the big back of Mafia drug money from the pawn shop, deliver it - and then he was going to be disposed of to prevent the Mafia finding out who organised the job.

Obviously now the Driver is involved, the job goes bad and Standard gets shot after Blanche bring the huge back of cash into the car. Driver and Blanche high-tail out to a motel, and Nino's guys track them down with a hit-squad to get the money back and finish the job.

The Driver stops them, and then needs to figure out who's money his has, and why they want him dead. He just wants to give the money back and go on with his life - it's not even his fight and he's barely involved. He just happens to get caught up in it all.

Hope that helps! It's been a few years since I've seen the film, but I really loved it.