When a low-life janitor is framed for a brutal murder, a politician and his henchmen work to solve the case themselves.

A young mobster boy is brought in for questioning after he stabs an elderly man, and desperately wants to be taken seriously by the Chicago police officers.

A boxer arrested for trespassing charges finds himself boxing at the behest of the sheriff, who lets him out for the night to beat down a local, overconfident fighter.

When the father of an accomplished boxer bets on one of his son's matches, the son loses and the family finds themselves in a deluge of debt. Soon, they are involved with dangerous mobsters and a world full of fixed fights and broken deals.

A sleazy New York City businessman is offered a deal to work supplying African zombies to companies as cheap blue-collar laborers.

A twenty-year-old boxer endures his trainer's grueling practice techniques to perfect his skills and win money from bets at his bar fights on the weekends. Though boxing has given him a purpose and a home with his trainer's family, the young man fears for his future, especially considering the tragic failures of those before him.

A teenage Marine recruit befriends another recruit who dreams of becoming a a New York City artist. Together, they fight in the Vietnam War: he develops epilepsy, and his friend dies.

In an airport terminal, a former boxer recounts to his coworker about the time he punched a classmate outside of the ring and the traumatic events that transpired.

A lonely high school English teacher develops a crush on one of his students, who continually writes him notes about the books she reads and calls him out of the blue. When her family invites him over for dinner to celebrate her admission to Princeton, he is caught off guard when they announce they want him to marry her.