In the wake of tragedy, ex-boxer Kelly returns to Detroit after years in the south. Unable to find work, he scavenges for scrap metal in the hundred-thousand abandoned buildings at the heart of the city, an area he calls 'the zone,' where one day he finds something far more valuable than the copper he's come to steal: a kidnapped boy handcuffed to a bed, crying out for rescue. After being celebrated as a hero, Kelly secretly decides to avenge the boy's unsolved kidnapping, a task that will take him deeper into the zone and into a confrontation with his own past.