Caged men, cut off from their women by a wall of stone and steel.!

Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) schemes to break out of Westgate prison. Joe is in love with Ruth (Ann Blyth), who doesn't know he is in jail and won't consent to an operation to save her life until he is at her side Joe visualizes Ruth when looking at the pretty calendar girl in his cell. His cellmates see in the lovely lithograph their Cora (Ella Raines), Gina (Yvonne DeCarlo) or Flossie (Anita Colby). Joe's hatred of Munsey (Hume Cronyn), the cruel guard captain, grows intense as he foments trouble among the convicts for his own ends Gallagher (Charles Bickford) and his henchmen join Joe's group in an escape plan. Capt. Munsey is tipped off and meets the escape attempt with machine guns...