 Dave Burke is looking to hire two men to assist him in a bank raid: Earl Slater, an white ex-convict, and Johnny Ingram, a black gambler. Both are reluctant; but Burke arranges for Ingram s creditors to put pressure on him, while Slater feels humiliated by his failure to provide for his girl-friend; they eventually accept. But Slater loathes and despises blacks, and the tensions in the gang rapidly mount.