FIGHT CLUB is narrated by a lonely, unfulfilled young man who finds his only comfort in feigning terminal illness and attending disease support groups. Hopping from group to group, he encounters another pretender, or tourist, the morose Marla Singer, who immediately gets under his skin.

However, while returning from a business trip, he meets a more intriguing character--the subversive Tyler Durden. They become fast friends, bonding over a mutual disgust for corporate consumer-culture hypocrisy. Eventually, the two start Fight Club, which convenes in a bar basement where angry men get to vent their frustrations in brutal, bare-knuckle bouts.

Fight Club soon becomes the men's only real priority; when the club starts a cross-country expansion, things start getting really crazy.