Summary
In the dusty, high-stakes world of 1920s pugilism, Billy Griffin finds himself in a romantic and physical bind that defies logic. Deeply in love with Catherine Curtis, he discovers that the gatekeeper to her heart is her father, James Curtis—a man who doesn't just promote fights, but lives for them. To earn Catherine’s hand, Billy is forced into a barbaric ritual: a boxing match against his potential father-in-law. Billy, a man who knows as much about a left hook as he does about quantum physics, is promptly decimated and sent into a state of total amnesia. What follows is a bizarre odyssey through the penal system, where a chance encounter with a veteran brawler in a jail cell transforms Billy from a dazed romantic into a lethal fighting machine. His rise through the ranks of the light heavyweight division is meteoric, yet he remains a man without a past, fighting under a cloud of forgotten identity. The climax arrives in a championship bout where the stakes are his sanity and his future, triggered by a woman’s desperate, stinging insults intended to wake the sleeping giant within.
Synopsis
Billy Griffin, who is in love with Catherine Curtis, the daughter of fight promoter James Curtis, must fight her father in order to win her hand in marriage. Despite his ignorance of boxing, Billy puts on the gloves, and the elder Curtis knocks him senseless. When Billy awakens, he has lost his memory. Billy is later sentenced to 90 days in jail, where his cellmate, a former boxer, sees he has a natural punch and teaches him the fistic art. After his release, Billy becomes a boxer and is soon successful enough to be matched with the light heavyweight champion, Young Dillon. Suddenly, Billy regains his memory and remembers nothing of his days as a fighter. He enters the ring with the champ, and for several rounds he is badly beaten. However, Catherine taunts Billy, calling him "yellow" until he becomes greatly angered. He handily wins the fight, but refuses to speak to Catherine. After learning she was only using his anger to save him, Billy chases after her taxi cab and, after leaping on the roof of the speeding vehicle, wins her for his bride.
