With his best days behind him, Johnny Walker, the ageing, washed-up prizefighter from Arkansas with the fragile health, ends up in a run-down seaside amusement park. There, as the punch-drunk boxer finds solace in the financially hard-pressed carousel owner, Ruby, the petty thief and small-time performer, Wesley Pendergrass, takes a shine to Johnny, introducing him to a dangerous dead-end world, and his next daring, smash-and-grab diamond robbery. Now, against all logic and his physician's advice, a last-minute, ten-round title fight seems like the only way out of Johnny's misery, even though he already knows that this lucrative boxing match may be his last. Will Johnny find redemption in the ring?
—Nick Riganas