It is 1980. The buildings and storefronts at Barton Street and Sherman Avenue are dilapidated remnants of Hamilton's once-thriving steel industry. The corner is also the nexus of a violent street gang that has left citizens terrorized and police impotent. Mean Season chronicles the random beatings, arson, sexual assaults, and other unfathomable violence of that time in the city's history, as Bobby Sferazza, a smart, tough, football-playing University of Toronto student, returns home to take a summer job as a night-club bouncer. As he attempts to help his widowed mother with his wayward kid brother, his take-no-prisoners mind-set leaves him entangled in drugs and gangs, with his bright future caught in the crossfire.