DR. MacAuley, a kindly, beloved country doctor, is sent to Fillmore Prison. His crime was for removing a bullet from a young man who was escaping from the police. A man, whom he had brought into the world many years before. At Filmore prison he is assigned to work in the jute mill after the prison doctor, Frank Norton, spurned his request to work in the hospital. "Lindy" Lindstron, MacAuley's co-worker in the mill, has a suddenly heart attack and Dr. Norton declares him beyond help. MacAuley administers adrenalin and Lindstrom recovers. News of the recovery spreads and MacAuley is besieged by fellow convicts with real and imaginary ills, and Norton requests his transfer to the hospital. Lindstrom, suffering greatly, begs MacAuley to give him an overdose of sedative, and offers him $10,000 he claims to have hidden "outside." MacAuley refuses, but is so touched by Lindstrom's agony that he talks over the possibility of a mercy death with Norton.