The film opens with Mary Kom (Priyanka Chopra) in labour, walking towards the hospital in the rain with her husband, Onler Kom (Darshan Kumaar) during a riot or insurgency in Imphal, Manipur in 2007. Due to a curfew, they have difficulty finding public transport and Onler is mistaken for an Insurgency in Manipur and beaten when he tries to find a vehicle. The film then shifts to a flashback in which Kom found boxing gloves in the remains of an Indian Airlines Flight 257 in Kangathei, which prompted her interest in boxing despite her father's disapproval. During an early fight, she chases a boy and ends up in a boxing gym. After realising that the coach of the gym, Narjit Singh (Sunil Thapa), was also the coach of the Asian champion Dingko Singh, Kom tells him about her boxing aspirations. He asks her to visit the gym for the next thirty days and says that he will only teach her if she is deserving enough. She starts visiting the gym, informing her mother but not her father. Days pass but her coach does not enquire about her. Due to Kom's dedication and stubbornness, Singh starts training her. Later, he suggests changing her name to Mary Kom.