Big House, U.S.A.
In a Colorado national park, a boy having an asthma attack is approached by a nurse, Emily Evans, with a syringe. Frightened of needles, the boy flees into the woods, where Jerry Barker finds him.
Park ranger Erickson tries to calm wealthy Robertson Lambert, the missing boy's frantic father. Barker demands a $200,000 ransom for the kid's safe return. But while collecting the money, Barker leaves behind the boy, who accidentally falls to his death. Barker coldly disposes of the body and buries most of the money.
Caught by agent Madden of the FBI, Barker is convicted of extortion, but not murder because no corpse is found. He is sent to prison, where the warden hopes to intimidate Barker by throwing the child killer together with four of the most hardened convicts in stir, bank robber Rollo Lamar, smuggler Alamo Smith, and cold-blooded killers Mason and Kelly.
Barker becomes known as the "ice man" because of his cold, icy persona in court when he was convicted. He also gains the prisoners' trust after discovering their escape plan and not informing. But when they take him along on the breakout, it is not out of friendship but because they're after the hidden ransom money.
Madden is in hot pursuit. He has discovered that Emily, the nurse, had been in on Barker's scheme from the start. Back in the park, the fugitives turn on one another until only two are left. Mason is gunned down, and Lamar begs for his life. The money is recovered, Barker is going back to prison, and Emily's given a sentence behind bars of her own.
murder