"The Contenders", the highest-rated 'reality' program on U.S. television, selects people at random to kill off one another until a lone champion survives. On the show, the six contenders are picked by lottery, given a gun, assigned a cameraman and let loose. Dawn is the 8-months pregnant reigning champion of the program. Single, alienated from her family and with just one round to go before she wins her freedom from the show, this survivor returns to her hometown of Newbury, CT after being away for 15 years - and "The Contenders" goes with her. Five new contenders are randomly selected to join Dawn: Tony is an asbestos-removal worker, Connie an emergency-room nurse, Lindsay an 18-year-old all-American girl, Franklin an elderly conspiracy theorist and Jeff an artist and pacifist, and also Dawn's high-school sweetheart. Determined to liberate herself and her unborn child, Dawn wastes no time hunting down her opponents. But these last contenders are the most cunning that Dawn has yet faced.