Ben has finished serving a three-year sentence for assault: one day, he couldn't go on watching his stepfather beating up his mother time and again. Yet, he swore off violence ever since. In search for a new beginning, Ben meets Joe, an aging boxing-trainer, who teaches him that there is a difference between “beating” and “fighting” – and that he must fight for a second chance in life.

On the long and strenuous way to his first championship fight, Ben repeatedly clashes with Kevin, a boxer whose girlfriend Natalie takes a liking to him. Soon, fights between the two men get personal, and Ben ends up on crutches. His hopes for a better life seem shattered for good.

But his critically ill trainer Joe won't allow Ben to give himself up. With Natalie's help he succeeds in motivating Ben to go beyond any limits. Ben summons his last resources to face up to his enemy Kevin in the ring for a finale in which there is much more at stake for Ben than a championship title.