Two juvenile delinquents leave a detention house, where they became friends. Paolo Vita starts a regular life as car mechanic, finds a girlfriend, Anna, and his loved by his mother Maria and his sister Silvana. A good athlete, he starts winning successive amateur matches, and after his 28th win, Franz approaches him with a proposal: he will fight and lose on purpose, to receive a large amount of money from Rome's underworld betting. Paolo accepts, as he needs the money badly, to pay for an operation of his orphan friend Marco. His decision is reproached by family and friends, he tries to get back, but Frank beats him up, and kills Marco. Paolo fights back, and gets his independence back. To please his mother, he promises her he will fight for the championship, but untrained and physically unfit, he will die of cardiac arrest just after winning the middle-weight championship.