In the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, in the mid 1970's, a brutal transformation is taking place. The days of the gentlemen gangster are over, and filling the void are a new, more brutal, breed of racketeer. The Irish, Italians and Columbians are battling each other for bloody supremacy over the wild West Side: loan sharking, protection rackets, strip clubs, and drugs.

Danny "Boy" McCoy, a boxer known as The Champ of Hell's Kitchen, wants no part in any of it. He has his own hopes and dreams. He wants nothing more than to land one great fight in Madison Square Garden, and get his ailing mother out of The Kitchen and upstate to the country, before it's too late.

But it's not as easy getting out of The Kitchen as it is getting in. Poverty, crime, old friendships, and love drag Danny spiraling into darker and more desperate circumstances.

Danny's got one last chance to make a stand. One last chance to save his soul from the furnace of Hell's Kitchen.