At the age of fourteen, Bart Tare botches a burglary of a hardware store to steal a gun and gets caught. He is sent to reform school by a sympathetic Judge Willoughby, despite the testimony of his friends Dave and Clyde, his older sister Ruby and others, that he would never kill any living creature, even though he has had a fascination with guns even as a child. Flashbacks provide a portrait of Bart who, after he kills a young chick with a BB gun at age seven, is hesitant to harm anyone with guns even though he is a good shot with a pistol.