Big House, U.S.A 1955

At a summer camp near a Colorado national park, a young boy runs a short race against his fellow campers and collapses with a severe asthma attack. The boy is rushed to the camp’s infirmary where nurse Emily Euridice Evans, Felicia Farr, tries to help him with a drug administered by injection. The boy, who is terrified of needles, flees into the woods, where Jerry Barker, Ralph Meeker, finds him.

Park ranger Will Erickson, Roy Roberts, tries to calm Robertson Lambert, the missing boy’s frantic father. Barker demands a $200,000 ransom and warns Lambert not to tell anyone or he will kill his son. Lambert agrees to pay, but when the boy attempts to escape from his hiding place, he falls to his death. Barker returns with the ransom money and, upon seeing the dead child, coldly throws the body over a cliff and buries most of the cash.

Caught by Special FBI Agent James Madden, Reed Hadley, Barker is convicted of extortion but not murder because the body is not found. He is sent to prison, where the warden hopes to intimidate him by exposing him to four hardened convicts: Rollo Lamar, Broderick Crawford; Alamo Smith, Lon Chaney Jr.; Mason, William Talman; and Benny Kelly, Charles Bronson.

Barker becomes known as the “Ice Man” because of his cold persona in the courtroom during his conviction. He quickly gains the inmates’ trust after discovering their escape plan and choosing not to tip off the authorities, effectively becoming a facilitator in their breakout scheme and securing a place among them in hopes of grabbing some of the hidden ransom money.

Madden pursues the case and discovers that Emily has secretly been a party to Barker’s scheme from the start. Back in the park, the fugitives turn on each other as the plan unravels; only two remain as the dust settles. Mason is gunned down, and Lamar pleads for mercy. The money is recovered, Barker and Lamar are returned to prison to face the gas chamber, and Emily receives a lengthy prison sentence. The story closes with the tension of pursuit, deception, and consequences that trail every choice the characters make.