Shortly after boxer Salamo Arouch becomes the middle-weight champion of the Balkins, his home city, Salonika, Greece, is invaded by Nazi Germany. As a Greek Jew, Salamo is scheduled to be deported, but he sneaks into a theater to meet his girlfriend, Allegra. As they watch Nazi newsreels, Salamo informs her that his best friend, Jacko, has joined the resistance. The following day, Salamo’s brother, Avram, marries his sweetheart, Sarah, before the Arouch family board the train, hoping the Germans will let them stay together. On the platform, Salamo is horrified to see police arrive with Allegra and her sister, Elena. The passengers endure a six-day train ride with no food and little water, and eventually arrive at a concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland. There, Salamo finds Allegra, but Jewish trustees, placed in charge to oversee prisoners, pull her away. When a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer asks Salamo’s nephew his age, the boy lies that he is sixteen, but the German orders him to join Salamo’s mother, sister, and niece in a line of mostly children and old people that is then led away. After being stripped, sheared, and searched for hidden valuables, the remaining men and women are deloused, and tattooed with identification numbers. Salamo, his father Poppa, and brother Avram join a squad of other Greek Jews. “Gypsy,” a Romanian prisoner trustee, warns they will be severely beaten if they do not obey his boss, Kapo Kyr, a German Jew. When Avram tries to help a hungry prisoner who passes out, Kapo Kyr cracks his rib with a club. After weeks of hard labor and abuse, Kyr, a boxer who fights to entertain the German officers, attacks Salamo, and although Kyr is bigger, Salamo is faster, and knocks the trustee unconscious. Observing the fight, SS Major Rauscher orders Salamo back to work and shoots Kapo Kyr in the head. That night, Salamo learns that young children and older women are automatically sent to the gas chamber, including his mother, who was taken away on the first day. In another part of the camp, Elena informs sister Allegra that she is pregnant. SS Major Rauscher makes Salamo his new boxing champion, and warns that he bets a lot of money. Salamo learns that he and his opponent must fight till one cannot rise. While Salamo waits to climb into the ring, he is surprised to see Gypsy and a band of Roma entertaining the German troops with traditional gypsy songs and dances. After Salamo wins by a knockout, he is presented with a huge loaf of bread. Gypsy demands a third in exchange for giving Salamo’s father an easier work assignment. Back in the barracks, Salamo shares the rest of his bread with his family and other prisoners. The next day, Allegra fails to convince Elena that she must not have her baby, because the Germans experiment on pregnant woman. Elena begs her to help her find food to bring the baby to fruition. Avram is assigned to wash out the gas chambers and remove the bodies. Although he is promised more food and better treatment, he refuses to work and is killed. After another brutal bout, Salamo and Gypsy stop outside an electric fence that surrounds the Roma’s camp. A little girl appears and Gypsy tosses her a teddy bear he stole from a pile of Jewish possessions at the crematorium. He then invites Salamo into his small room to share a bottle of Schnapps. The next day, Salamo is assigned to work at the same steel mill as Allegra, but does not see her. He discovers the foreman is his boyhood friend, Jacko, but the boy screams hostile orders. Elena’s pregnancy is draining and Allegra grows so desperate; she steals bread from a dying woman, but she is caught and whipped. A few days later, Salamo’s father is selected for the gas chamber, and Gypsy is unable to help. Weeks pass, and Elena begs for extra food, but other women discover she was lying about her pregnancy. At the mill, Jacko reveals he is working with the resistance and recruits Salamo to help blow up the crematorium. A bombing raid interrupts their planning, and Salamo uses the diversion to run into the women’s section to search for Allegra, who he spotted earlier that day. As they embrace, the “all clear” horn sounds, and Salamo promises to her, if he survives. He returns to the mill to see Jacko removed by the SS. That night, Gypsy reveals that Russians soldiers are nearing the camp. Prisoners who can work will be moved, and the rest exterminated. Salamo is taken to Major Rauscher, who is arguing with his second in command. The German officer is ashamed of his war crimes, and shoots himself in the head. When Rauscher orders Salamo to fight a bloody and beaten Jacko, the boy refuses, and Rauscher shoots Jacko dead as punishment. The next day, relatively healthy Jews are marched out of the camp by the Russians, and Gypsy assigns Salamo work at the crematorium. As Salamo stares at the corpses, Jewish prisoners overpower the guards. One tosses a grenade inside a gas furnace and the building explodes. As prisoners flee, they are gunned down with machine guns. That night, Salamo is pulled from the rubble and tortured by the Gestapo. He spends the night listening to fellow prisoners being shot, hanged, and branded with hot irons. In the morning, Gypsy opens the door to his cell and declares the Germans have retreated. Salamo limps away in search of Allegra.