Jim Montgomery receives a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. He escapes upon hearing that his mother is ill and begins a new life in California after her funeral.
Jim Montgomery is a small-town mechanic who goes to the big city looking for work. He applies for several jobs, but is unable to obtain one. Discouraged, he is approached by two men, who are actually crooks. They offer him a night job, at a bank. Jim accepts the job, and the crooks tell him to wait outside the bank. They take his tools, rob the bank, and murder the night watchman with a wrench. They run out of the bank, dropping the murder weapon at Jim's feet. When police arrive at the scene, they find a bewildered Jim looking at the wrench. He is arrested, tried, and convicted of second-degree murder, and sent to Sing-Sing.
During his prison stay, he learns that is mother is gravely ill, so he looks for an opportunity to escape. Old Bill, a fellow inmate, believes Jim is innocent, and plans his own means of escape. But his plan is discovered, and Bill has his own prison sentenced lengthened. Jim manages to conceal himself in a box and is shipped out of prison. Detectives search for him at his mother's house. At daybreak, Jim arrives on the scene, concealing himself in a thicket. When nightfall approaches, he sees a funeral procession leaving his mother's house, and realizes what has happened. When the house is empty, he enters, gets a change of clothes, and heads west.
In California, he gets a job at a knitting mill, using an assumed name. He eventually works his way up to superintendent. The owner's daughter, Molly Bryant, falls for him, but Jim is afraid to return her affections because of his past. One day at a picnic, Jim sees a convict lurking in the woods, and helps him escape. When Molly asks him why he did it, he confesses his past, and Molly believes he is innocent. They arrange to be married. Meanwhile, Old Bill has been paroled and tries to find the criminals who framed Jim. Jim has changed so much since his prison days that he feels detectives can no longer identify him, except by his fingerprints.
A New York detective named Mike Kearney visits the cemetery where Jim's mother is buried, and discovers who paid for the grave. By following the lead, he goes to California, and visits the mill on Jim's wedding day. While the two men talk, they hear a scream coming from the mill. One of the female workers has caught her hair in the needles of the machine. Jim rescues her, and then realizes there is one sure way to hide his fingerprints. He plunges his hands into the machine and the needles penetrate his fingertips. Kearney realizes that Jim has won. Meanwhile, Old Bill as found the real killer, who is dying, and gets the man to confess. Jim is cleared.
