George Bancroft, Fay Wray and Richard Arlen star in this crime drama directed by Josef von Sternberg. Jim Lang (Bancroft) is a dangerous man guilty of robbery and murder. His girlfriend Ritzie (Wray) wants to change her ways and so helps the police to catch Jim.
He keeps tabs on her from prison and learns that she has met someone new, a bank clerk called Bob (Arlen). Will Jim succeed in his plan to frame Bob for a violent crime so that he can kill him in jail before he himself is executed?