Frank Powell, an honest stock salesman, attempts to verify the authenticity of his merchandise and his employer commits suicide. Dishonest partners in the company employ gangsters to make the man's death look like murder, in order to cast suspicion on Frank and cover up their own crooked deals. He is convicted and sent to prison. He escapes by chance when other gangsters effect the escape of a gang-member to whom Frank happens to be handcuffed at the time. Free, he sets out, aided by his brother, Curtis, a former missionary, to establish his innocence.