Fifteen years later, the author, now a magazine writer living in New York, attended a boxercise class on a lark. She had grown up thinking boxing was savage, barbaric, and certainly unladylike. But after one punch in that downtown studio, Sekules was captivated by the sport that provokes more passionate and visceral responses than perhaps any other. This book is the story of her unlikely, sometimes cruel and dangerous, but ultimately transforming love affair with boxing.

After those first classes at the Crosby Street Studio, Sekules worked her way to the legendary Gleason's, one of the oldest boxing gyms in the country. There she found a community pulsing with its own mores, rituals and discipline. At first nonplussed by this woman in their midst, the old-timers and trainers were soon impressed by Sekules's dedication, and gradually became her biggest supporters. Almost unwillingly, Sekules started training for her first professional fight. Every stage of the journey surprised Sekules in ways she could not have predicted, and her story, by turns devastating and hilarious, is about the very nature of aggression, pain, fear, and love.