 Young Kent Marlowe, sent to prison for manslaughter, never learns the prison  code of honor , planting a knife on his cellmate John Morgan, causing Morgan s parole, due to start the next day, to be revoked. Morgan escapes, meets and falls in love with Marlowe s sister, is recaptured and returned to prison where his ex-cellmate,tough-guy murderer Butch Schmidt, has entrusted the details of a planned breakout to the craven Marlowe.