In 1985 (the early years of the AIDS epidemic), Karen O'Neil, after a five-year absence and haunted by the recent death of her boxer fiancé, returns to her Colorado hometown to reunite with her family who are leaders within their church and operators of a successful martial arts business. After an ostracized gay teenager named McClain Evans is severely beaten, his mother asks Karen to take him as her secret pupil and teach him the martial way. When the secret gets out that she's his teacher, events unfold that effect her and her family.