A Jewish Prisoner who escapes from a Nazi Concentration Camp during work detail must then survive on his own in the bitter forests of Poland. He uses his memories of life as an artist in Paris before the war to keep him warm and from going mad.

Set in 1964, a camera crew follows Willie Pep, retired featherweight boxing champion. Down and out in Hartford CT, married to a woman half his age and with a drug-addled son and mounting debts, Pep decides to make a return to the ring.