Somewhere in the near future, exists The Arena. Here men with an 'agression gene' with which they want to live no longer, are being admitted to fulfil their wish to die. Through fights to the death, televised by the commercial sportschannel, lives are being ended before one's time. Temmink, one of the gladiators, wins his first fight, finds a friend in a colleague and falls in love with one of the prostitutes. He becomes a national hero and loses his will to die. But, once admitted to the The Arena, there is no return...