Dave Burke looks to hire two men to assist him in a bank raid: Earle Slater, a white ex-convict, and Johnny Ingram, a Black gambler. Both are reluctant, but Burke arranges for Ingram's creditors to pressure him, while Slater feels humiliated by his failure to provide for his girlfriend; they eventually accept. But Slater loathes and despises Black people, and the tensions in the gang rapidly mount.—David Levene