 After the World War I, the decorated for bravery sergeant James Allen (Paul Muni) decides to quit his job as a worker in the local factory in his hometown and find a position in construction business. He travels through many states, but is not well-succeed. Without any money, he is cheated and involved in a robbery of a dining place in the southern. He is wrongly convicted to serve in a brutal chain gang system for ten years. He escapes, moves to Chicago, where he becomes a prominent citizen and superintendent of a construction business. Due to a letter of his stupid brother, Rev. Robert Clinton Allen (Hale Hamilton), his girl-friend Marie Woods (Glenda Farrell) finds his condition of fugitive and blackmails him, forcing James to marry her. He becomes upset with the situation of permanently cheated husband, asks for the divorce and she denounces him to the police. During an intense dispute between the States of Illinois, asking for his pardon, and the Southern State, demanding the return of James to the prison, the brutal chain gang system is exposed, with tragic consequences for James.