Butch Haynes is a career criminal who learned his trade growing up in New Orleans dance houses his violent father frequented. After escaping the penitentiary with his cell mate and seizing both the warden and his car, Butch befriends the 10-year old son of a woman his cellmate tries to sexually assault. After Haynes kills his former cellmate the movie develops the relationship between Haynes and the boy, who, in the end, proves to be the downfall of Haynes.