A man convinces his brother to bust him out of prison.

Hard-living linesmen "Lucky" Walden decides to get his money back from some crooked gamblers despite warnings from his loyal brother, Steve Carroll. Because they refuse to return the money plus "interest," Lucky hits one of them with a wrench, then hides the body in the bathroom when some other gamblers arrive. They turn out to be policemen, however, and find the man dead. Lucky is then convicted of murder and sentenced to death, despite his plea of self-defense. While Lucky awaits execution, Steve searches for Ned Burns, a missing witness to the incident whom Lucky claimed would corroborate his story. When Steve receives a tip and finds Burns, he backs up Lucky's story, convincing the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison, even though the police suspect that Burns is lying. Later, after Lucky heroically tries to save the life of a fellow prisoner burned by high voltage wires, the warden helps him get a parole. After assisting the power company with some daring emergency work, Lucky gets a job as a linesman again, and resumes his old, rule-breaking ways. Steve, who is in love with his girl Kitty, plans to marry her, unaware that she and Lucky are also attracted to each other. After Lucky slugs a man foolishly showing children how to fly a kite under power lines, he is picked up for violating parole and learns that Burns has told the truth about the murder. When Steve hears Lucky's story about the re-arrest, however, he doesn't know that the real cause is the slugging. Lucky then convinces Steve to rig the electricity in the elevator to the prison's bars so that he can "burn" his way out of jail. Though Steve doesn't want to run away, Lucky convinces him to accompany him after he calls Kitty. When policeman Dan Gray confronts Kitty with the truth about Lucky's double dealings, she tells him to look for them at the power station. There, as the police go after Lucky, Steve tries to convince him to turn himself in, but Lucky knocks him unconscious before climbing the high wires. He is killed when workmen turn the electricity on, and Steve is arrested for helping Lucky break jail. Gray then summons Kitty to the police station to tell Steve what Lucky really was like so that after his short jail sentence he will be free to start a new life.