A portrait of a crime, more immediately in the terms of the community where it occurred and those whom it affected, more largely as a reflection against a society which ""has failed man, and in failing him, resorts to violence"". California and a small town frame the murder of Robert Wineberg at the hands of Jerry Slocum and Howard Tyler, Jerry, embittered after his return from the war, Howard whose family keep him in perpetual insecurity and poverty. Tagging along with Jerry through a series of holdups, Howard is unwillingly involved in Wineberg's murder, soon breaks under the tension of fear and guilt. Exposed and jailed, they face the primitive punishment of a lynching... An interpretation of the criminal in social terms, this is adequately handled, but unfortunately illustrated in line.