Irish mine worker Barney Slaney (Pat O'Brien) finds his wife in bed with another man and kills them both; when he decides to do the right thing by turning himself in, his troubles really begin. Barney is sentenced to life in prison, and it turns out that the brother of the man he killed is in charge of his chain gang. Barney quickly realizes that his life is going to be a living hell...unless he can find a way to turn the tables on his oppressor. Once thought lost, this controversial pre-Code gem is one of the great social realist films of the early 1930s.