The Acting Edition contains notes showing how nearly all scene changes may be made with a minimum of effort. People are inclined to laugh at Joe, a moody young Italian with "cockeyed" notions. At heart a musician—he has a real talent for the violin—he longs to be "top man" in some other field. So he goes into the prizefighting racket and becomes surprisingly good at it. In each fight he becomes more and more brutish and finally in a big match he kills his opponent. With both hands broken and his spirit crushed, money and fame mean nothing to him. Not even Lorna, the girl who once gave him courage to face defeat, can lift him out of his despair. Driving madly through the night to forget everything, Joe and Lorna are killed.