 Part documentary and part fiction, the film recreates a robbery and the subsequent incarceration of the thief. Interviews are conducted with individuals involved in the penal system, such as the judge, a city alderman, a church minister, the director of a prison, a correctional officer, an inmate, his wife and children, an ex-inmate. Together their views provide a remarkably well-balanced picture of the effectiveness and failures of the penal system.