Freedom-loving Frank Leone, a fighter for justice, who ends up in prison, is sure to leave its walls in a few months. He is a model prisoner, but some prison officials still remember his escape, which resulted in extra time for Frank and the ruining of the prison director's career. The director has long had a grudge against him, so one miraculous morning the hero is unexpectedly transferred to another prison, a real hell, where the same Warden Drumgoole serves as the warden. His record is now stained by Frank's fault, and so he vows to give prisoner Leone a hard time, to provoke him to escape, and to prove that the convict he hates is incorrigible. Drumgoole is a real dictator in the colony, whose orders are obeyed without question by the guards and prisoners, and now he wants Frank to stay within the walls of the Gateway prison as long as possible.