The last car of a transcontinental train streaking through desolate desert country is filled with convicts headed for Alcatraz. Each is filled but with one thought---escape! Mobster Bart Kanin has an escape angle that "can't miss"---providing there's a fall guy. Having framed young Tommy Callahan on a murder rap, Kanin plans on killing two birds with one stone by making him the victim. Kanin refuses to string along, knowing that Kanin and his moll, Virginia, pinned the murder charge on him while the real killer, Marty Mason, went free. He turns to tough-guy Doug Forbes, Kanin's rival, for protection.