Fourteen-year-old Tolly Devlin sees four hoods beat his father to death. Twenty years later, the killers have risen to the top of the crime syndicate. Ever since his adolescence, Tolly's (Cliff Robertson) goal has been to avenge his father. Tolly has even become a criminal and gotten himself sent to prison so that he could get close to one of the perpetrators. Tolly becomes as vindictive and sadistic as the men he is after. He rejects the two relationships that could redeem him, his mother-figure (Beatrice Kay) and his moll (Dolores Dorn) in favor of cold, hard vengeance.
Becoming a secret informant for the government, Tolly ends up playing both sides against the middle in his cagey campaign to bring down the remaining mobsters. Tolly's nihilistic vendetta eventually robs him of his own humanity (and more).
Where has Tolly gotten himself sent so that he could get close to one of the perpetrators?
Prison