For years Hank Fisher has chased his dream of becoming a mixed martial arts champion. Now he's on a losing streak in his adopted home of Tokyo, Japan, and realizing maybe the dream was never meant to be. Broke, divorced, and alone, he hasn't seen his ex-wife and twin sons in two years and has no idea where they are. He gets kicked out of his gym after an altercation with a training partner and thinks he's hit rock bottom.

But Fisher's troubles are only just beginning. The PI he hired two months ago to find his family wants more money before he'll tell Fisher where they are. So, when a friend tells Fisher about a high-paying bodyguard gig for a yakuza group, Fisher throws caution to the wind and takes the job.

But the job doesn't go as planned, and within forty-eight hours, Fisher has hurt one of the men he was hired to protect, unwittingly stolen a bag of drug money, and become a possible murder suspect. On the run from a pack of ruthless gangsters, the cops and a US federal agent he doesn't know whether he can trust, it doesn't seem like things can get any worse for Hank Fisher.

Until, that is, his friends start dying.

Now he has to stay alive long enough to save his family from the same fate.