Genesis Potini is a wildly charismatic, bipolar-suffering former chess champion, at a crossroads in his life. When we meet Gen, he is being released from a psych ward and given a last chance at life in society. With nowhere else to go, he moves into his gang brother's house. Seeking 'something positive' to keep him out of the ward, Gen joins a chess club for displaced youth and on a whim announces that he will lead them to a national chess tournament in six weeks time. On his quest to help the kids, Gen must overcome violence from within the gang-world, resistance in the community, and the ever-present threat of his own bipolar demons.