After he quits his job as an aircraft engineer in New Mexico after an argument with his boss, John Thompson decides to take his girlfriend and move to California. On his way to pick up his paycheck he is kidnapped by a criminal gang, who are planning to rob the payroll office at John's former employer. They take his car and one of them wears his coat while holding up the office. During the robbery the paymaster is killed, and a little boy is run over as the gang is escaping. They dump the car and release John, who shortly afterward is arrested and charged with robbery and murder. Despite conflicting evidence and John's protestations that he has been framed, he is convicted, sentenced to death and sent to prison, where he is put on Death Row while awaiting execution. A detective who had helped to convict John now starts to think that maybe he was innocent as he claimed, starts to go back over the evidence and doesn't like what he finds.