A group of prisoners on death row in a prison near Lawson City stage a takeover, taking as a hostage a guard named Charlie Keefer, who is a friend of Joe Mannix. The prisoners demand that Mannix come to see them, where they tell Mannix that one of their number, Carl Dancik, is innocent, and that they want Mannix to re-open his case. Dancik was convicted of the murder of an old girlfriend, but claims he was framed for the crime. With only a few days to turn something up, Mannix turns to another old friend in Lawson City, award-winning newspaperman Frank McGill, to see if anything can be found to help Dancik -- and free his friend Charlie.
—aldanoli