Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is a misfit in her small town, Bodeen, in Texas and has no idea where her life is going. She allows her mother to push her into entering beauty pageant after beauty pageant, despite having no interest in it herself.


She and her friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) dream of escaping their small town, with Pash planning to go to an Ivy League School in a big city and Bliss hoping to find something that will help her figure out where she belongs. During a shopping trip to Austin she finds it — roller derby. She and Pash secretly go to the roller derby event in Austin under the pretense of going to a football game. Bliss only wishes to tell the Hurl Scouts that they are "her new heroes" and is suddenly thrown into the idea of being in Roller Derby herself when Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) replies, "Well, put some skates on. Be your own hero."

Returning to Austin, Bliss tries out for the Hurl Scouts, a derby team that has never won a game. Having no real experience, Bliss is nevertheless faster than any girl on the team, and makes the cut. Despite the determination of Razor (Andrew Wilson) their coach, the other "Scouts" are happy to be number 2 in every game they play. Razor has made such a science out of roller derby that he even prepares play books. The Scouts have no interest in Razor's coaching until he "persuades" another team to use one of the plays against the Scouts, which they unleash with clockwork precision.

After realizing she needs to be ruthless in Roller Derby, Bliss realizes she also needs to take charge in other aspects of her life and her parents and old friends are eventually able to accept that Roller Derby is where she belongs, even if only for the moment.[2]