Joe Rolfe (John Payne) is a hard-bitten ex-con who has plenty of luck and it's all the bad kind. He finds himself set up as a patsy who is picked up on suspicion of committing a robbery that was actually orchestrated by a former Kansas City police officer Tim Foster (Preston Foster). On the lam, Joe takes on the identity of a dead hoodlum and joins Foster's gang in hopes of exposing the true villain and proving his innocence.