After a botched heist, Wild West bandit Paris Pitman Jr. (Kirk Douglas) hides his newly stolen money where no one will find it, then loses his entire gang in a blaze of bullets before being captured by the law and given a lengthy sentence in a desert jail. Paris believes that he can buy his way out of his predicament by offering some cash to the guards, but the upstanding Sheriff Lopeman (Henry Fonda) makes sure his men remain honest. Running out of options, Paris begins plotting a jailbreak.