Seventeen-year-old Matt Foley has a typical set of problems: feeling alienated from his perpetually perky family, struggling to focus on classes when sports seem far more interesting, chafing at the slow pace of life in his small Virginia town. The usual. Until his coach and mentor is killed at a tae kwon do tournament.

During a sparring match, Bobby Davis, a baby-faced stranger from Richmond, crushes the coach's larynx with a powerful spinning hook kick. To the police, it looks like a tragic accident. To Matt, it looks like deliberate murder. A few of his friends agree, including the attractive but puzzling Graciana Cortez, editor of the school paper. Matt knows it doesn't make much sense for teenagers to investigate a murder, but if he doesn't do something, who will?

Matt sneaks off to Richmond, following a lead to an illegal fight club, where he watches Davis easily defeat a string of opponents. Barely escaping the club without a fight himself, Matt nonetheless persists in his investigation, even though his search for answers brings him into conflict with his school, the police, and his parents. He wants to improve his self-defense skills—so he, along with Graciana, joins a krav maga class, taught by a man who becomes his new mentor—because Matt can't escape the feeling that, before all this is over, he'll have to face Bobby Davis himself.