Based on the true story of Genesis 'Gen' Potini, a Maori speed-chess champion. A former chess prodigy, Gen is brilliant and charismatic, bringing unusual, potent energy to a game most often played with quiet reserve. Upon his release from an institution, he is remanded into the custody of his older brother Ariki, the leader of a rough street gang planning the initiation of Gen's reluctant teenage nephew Mana. When Gen volunteers to coach the ragtag young members of the Eastern Knights chess club, Mana is inspired by his uncle's determination to bring hope to the children of the club and turn his troubled life around, while seeing it as a chance to possibly save his own.