While lifting weights in the Seldon Jackson College gymnasium on a rainy autumn night, Jaed Coffin hears the distinctive whacking sound of sparring boxers down the hall. A year out of college, he has been biding his time as a tutor at a local high school in Sitka, Alaska, without any particular life plan. That evening, Coffin joins a ragtag boxing club; despite feeling initially terrified, he learns to fight. His coach, Victor “the Savage,” invites him to participate in the monthly Roughhouse Friday competition, where men contend for the title of best boxer in southeast Alaska. With every successive match, Coffin realizes that he isn’t just fighting for the championship belt; he is also learning to confront the anger he feels about a past he never knew how to make sense of.