The play opens by introducing us to Andy Whitman, a shoeshine boy with a mean left hook. The handsome teenager is taken up by big Mack, a real loser of a boxing promoter. Initially, neither the young man, his ambitious father, his grandmother or his girlfriend Ruth are all that certain about a career in which the boy might get his head knocked off. To make things worse, Andy is a proud man who will not accept the standards of his day. Demean his race or ban him from a hotel and the odds are that he will lay you out. Along comes a greasy, racist promoter, Lou Foster, who will stand for no nonsense from any fighter, let alone a black one.