The well-bred daughter of a college professor assumes the name of Jeanne Crail to date Earl Williams, a slick con-artist who frames her for robbery. Rather than have her father find out about her plight, Jeanne confesses to the crime. Believing she is covering for a known criminal, the district attorney has Jeanne sent to a tough women's prison. There Jeanne comes to know fellow inmates Bernice, who pines for Smiley, her boyfriend on the outside and Alma Vlasek, who awaits her execution for mistakenly killing a detective while lying in wait for her husband and his girl friend. Jeanne tries to mail a letter to her father through the prison doctor, Gale Warren, but Warren refuses to go against regulations. Desperate, Jeanne breaks out of jail to be present at her father's induction ceremony as college president. Jeanne spends two days with her father and attorney boyfriend Barton Sturgis before secretly returning to prison. Before she goes back, however, she manages to arrange to have letters sent to her father at regular intervals from a post office outside the prison. Upon her return to prison, Jeanne is punished for her escape, rousing the sympathy of Bernice, who finds out Bart's name and sends him a letter asking him to help Jeanne. Bart, who has been suspicious of Jeanne's abrupt disappearance, is confused by the letter, as he does not know who "Jeanne" is. Nevertheless he investigates and comes to the prison. In the meantime, when Smiley visits the prison and pays unwanted attention to Jeanne, Bernice is overcome with jealousy. She attacks Jeanne with a knife, which is later hidden from the matron, and Jeanne is accused of starting the altercation. Placed in solitary confinement, Jeanne is grilled about the whereabouts of the knife, while Bart meets with Dr. Warren to plead for help. Alma then discovers that Bernice is her husband's girl friend and kills her with the knife. Alma clears Jeanne of any involvement in the earlier knife fight, and with Bart's help, Jeanne is ultimately vindicated and freed.