As he waits in a hospital, bar owner Nick Samson recalls the events
that have led up to
this day: Nick's brother, crippled boxing manager
Pete, learns of a prisoner named Terry Williams who is winning every
jailhouse boxing fight. Impressed by what he sees, Pete makes a deal
with Terry to get him released if he agrees to train with Pete. Terry,
who was framed for murder after he unintentionally knocked a man down
on the street, agrees. Pete then convinces Nick, who will do anything
to please his ailing brother, to arrange for Terry's release with
crooked judge Sam Hannum.
Days later, as Terry trains at Pete's
gymnasium, he meets sports reporter Al Bell, trainer Longshot
McGinnis, and Punchy, an ex-fighter who became mentally impaired after
too many hits to the head. Nick's girl friend, Candy Allen ( Anne Gwynne ), is Punchy's ex-fiancée and now despises Pete, whom she blames for
Punchy's condition. Terry is a natural athlete and soon is winning
every fight. When Hannum, who is running for governor, asks to be
photographed with Terry after one fight, the boxer recognizes him as
the judge who falsely indicted him and refuses.
Terry tours the
country and wins each fight, but remains more interested in finding
Joe Devito, the man he believes set him up, than his career.
Meanwhile, Hannum's niece June agrees to aid a society fundraiser by
arranging a charity fight between Terry and heavyweight boxing
champion Joe Thompson. At the same time, Bell urges Pete to pit Terry
against Thompson, but Pete, remembering how Punchy was promoted too
quickly, insists that Terry needs one more year of practice. June
visits Terry to urge him to help the charitable effort, and although
he refuses out of respect for Pete, he makes June promise to see him
again.
Within weeks, the two fall in love and he reveals his past to
her. Pete watches in desperation as Terry's boxing suffers as a result
of his time with June, and so forbids Terry to see her. Hannum also
threatens to revoke Terry's parole if he continues to date June, but
Terry snubs them both. Hannum then discovers that the news syndicate
will back him as a candidate for governor if he arranges for Terry to
fight in the charity event, and so pressures Nick to convince Pete to
let Terry fight. Nick, knowing how much Terry's success means to Pete,
refuses, but after Hannum has Nick's bar raided, he visits Pete. Pete
reveals that all his dreams are wrapped up in Terry, and that he will
not be able to live if Terry fails. To gain control of Terry, Hannum
jails Devito in order to keep him quiet.
As June waits for Terry at
the gym, Candy warns her about the dangers of letting him fight the
champ before he is ready. Pete then enters and tells June that Terry
will be sent back to prison if she does not stop interfering. When
Terry comes in, however, he informs Pete that he must leave June
alone, or he will lose his prize fighter. Finally, feeling pressured
by Nick and Hannum, Terry agrees to the fight, and secretly marries
June while he trains.
As the weeks pass, she grows increasingly
worried and makes him promise that the Thompson match will be his
last. On the day of the fight, Terry receives a tip on Devito's
whereabouts and races to find him. He shows up, exhausted, moments
before the fight is to begin and leaves Devito, who has confessed to
framing him, in the office with Longshot. As the fight begins, June
waits in the office, and upon overhearing Devito discuss his cohort, a
judge, becomes suspicious of her uncle.
Pete watches the fight and
grows more and more distraught as Thompson repeatedly punches Terry in
the face, but Terry remains in the fight. In the office, Hannum has
Nick knock out Longshot and then steal Devito's confession and release
him. When June sees that Devito has been let go, she realizes her
uncle's scheme and reveals to him that he cannot jail Terry because
she is married to him. In the ring, Terry goes down for the last time
and is brought backstage on a stretcher. Pete collapses from a stroke
just before the doctor revives Terry and declares that he will be
fine. Back in the present, Nick learns that Pete has died and
remembers his brother's prophesy that he could not live without his
dreams.
