Ex-Green Beret Louis Stevens returns to his old high school in Miami and takes on his toughest assignment yet: whipping a group of the school's worst juvenile delinquents into shape. Stevens, a master of the graceful, potentially lethal form of Brazilian martial art known as capoeira, decides to put the kids through a rigorous training program. The unruly youths improve by leaps and bounds as they gain self-respect and a sense of empowerment through the discipline of the sport. Using their newfound skill, the boys, with the help of Stevens, take on the vicious neighborhood gang that is terrorizing their school -- the leader of which just happens to be an expert in capoeira.