When the wide-eyed fugitive Bowie (Rope's FARLEY GRANGER), having broken out of prison with some bank robbers, meets the innocent Keechie (Ben-Hur's CATHY O'DONNELL), each recognizes something in the other that no one else ever has. The young lovers envision a new, decent life together, but as they flee the cops and contend with Bowie's fellow outlaws, who aren't about to let him go straight, they realize there's nowhere left to run.